Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On January 22, 2009, three air cargo airlines, LAN Cargo S.A. (“LAN”), a Chilean company, Aerolinhas Brasileiras S.A. (“ABSA”), a Brazilian company, and EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. (“EL AL”), an Israeli company, each pled guilty for their role in a worldwide conspiracy to fix prices in the air cargo industry and agreed to pay…

On January 15, 2009, Chang Suk (“C.S.”) Chung, former Vice President of Monitor Sales for LG Display Co. Ltd. (“LG”), Chieng-Hon Lin (“Frank”), former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (“Chunghwa”), Chih-Chun Liu (“C.C.”), former Vice President of LCD Sales for Chunghwa, and Hseuh-Lung Lee (“Brian”), former executive of Chunghwa, all…

On January 15, 2009, Ronald K. Johnston, a former employee of Home Depot, pled guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and for two counts of filing false tax returns in an attempt to defraud Home Depot.The conspiracy took place between 2005 and 2007. Specifically, Mr. Johnston received kickbacks from foreign suppliers seeking to do…

On January 14, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed a suit to block the proposed $540 million assets and interest acquisition of Pavestone Co. (“Pavestone”) by rival Oldcastle Architectural, Inc. (“Oldcastle”) because it would reduce competition in the manufacture and sale of drycast concrete hardscapes.Both companies manufacture and sell drycast concrete hardscape products, which…

On January 14, 2009, AT&T Inc. (“AT&T”) entered into a civil settlement worth $2 million with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to settle charges that AT&T was in contempt of a March 2008 consent decree AT&T entered into during its acquisition of Dobson Communications Corporation (“Dobson”).The consent decreed required AT&T to divest three mobile wireless…

On December 29, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) required a divestiture to resolve antitrust concerns with King Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s (“King”) $1.6 billion acquisition of Alpharma, Inc. (“Alpharma”). To remedy the situation, the FTC is requiring King to divest Alpharma’s brand Kadian, an oral long-acting opioid (“LAO”) analgesic drug, to Actavis, one of the world’s…

On December 22, 2008, Theresa J. Baker, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, pled guilty for her role in two conspiracies to commit bribery involving U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) contracts at Camp Victory, Iraq.As a part of the same investigation, on June 3, 2008, Raman International Inc. (“Raman”), a defense contractor, pled guilty…

On December 19, 2008, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.’s settled charges that its proposed $8.9 billion acquisition of rival generic drug maker Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. would be anticompetitive. The consent order required Teva and Barr to sell assets in 29 relevant markets, including generic drugs commonly used to treat acid reflux disease, various types of cancer,…

On December 18, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsemi Corporation (“Microsemi”) alleging that Microsemi’s acquisition of Semicoa Inc.’s (“Semicoa”) assets has reduced or eliminated competition for the development, manufacture, sale of certain semiconductor devices used by the U.S. military and space programs, resulting in the increase in the price…

On December 18, 2008, Zul Tejpar, a former employee at Bennett Environmental Industries (“BEI”), a Canadian soil treatment company, pled guilty for defrauding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) at the EPA-designated Superfund site, Federal Creosote in Manville, NJ and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $1 million and help in the ongoing investigation.The…