Movement of executives within the nation’s top three tuna producing companies has been cited as one of the examples, in which the canneries allegedly colluded in their price fixing conspiracy.

And former StarKist Samoa general manager, Brett Butler, as well as former StarKist Co., executive Chris Lischewski are cited as two glaring examples of moving cannery executives from one cannery to another, according to the latest amended complaint filed by New York-based company, Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative.

However, industry sources — both local and off-island — told Samoa News that cannery executives working at one cannery and then seeking employment at another “is not illegal” and has been a “common practice for many years in a very competitive industry.”

And it has only become an issue now through the civil lawsuits, according to industry sources, who only responded to Samoa News inquiries on condition onf anonymity, because they are only offering their personal views. “If another cannery offers better opportunity, then you move — just like any other job,” said one industry source.

Samoa News has reported over the past two years on the price fixing civil suit against StarKist, Bumble Bee Food and Chicken of the Sea International. The defendants and their co-conspirators are accused of conspiring to raise, fix, stabilize or maintain prices of and restrict capacity within the market for the sale of Packaged Tuna product, since 2004.

Additionally, the defendants and their co-conspirators are alleged to have directly coordinated, among other things, can and pouch sizes for tuna; pricing of packaged tuna.

As of last week, there are more than 1,500 plaintiffs — including major companies and individuals. The lawsuits were consolidated last year and are now heard at the federal court in San Diego under the “package seafood products antitrust litigation” case.

Several plaintiffs — seeking a class action suit — have filed amended complaints, adding new allegations to their original complaints. Among the new amended complaints was that made by Olean wholesale — one of the original handful of companies, which filed lawsuits against the three canneries in 2015.

Olean alleges that a further opportunity to collude in the price fixing conspiracy was provided through bilateral co-packing agreements between Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea in a 2011 agreement in which Chicken of the Sea’s former plant in Lyons, Georgia co-packs seafood for Bumble Bee.

(Samoa News notes Chicken of the Sea closed down its American Samoa cannery plant in September 2009 and relocated operations to Lyons.)

Olean notes that in March of last year, Bumble Bee had to recall 2,745 cases of canned tuna packed for it by Chicken of the Sea. And even before the proposed merger, these two companies were cooperating and communicating closely, it says, adding that the merger was called off more than a year ago, after the US Justice Department intervened that it was conducting a criminal investigation into price fixing in the canned tuna industry.

“These interlocking relationships provided additional opportunities to collude on pricing, as well as a chance to exchange sensitive internal economic information,” Olean alleges in the lawsuit. “Indeed, there were at least monthly operational meetings between the two companies.”

Olean went on to allege that the interlocking relationships among defendants are also demonstrated by the movement of executives among the companies. “There are numerous examples of this,” Olean further alleged. For example, Butler left StarKist in July 2014 to join Bumble Bee, and relocated to Bumble Bee’s San Diego headquarters, where Chicken of the Sea is also based.

It was only a few months later, in December of 2014, that the proposed acquisition of Bumble Bee by Chicken of the Sea was announced, Olean said; however in December 2015 the proposed merger was abandon with the USDOJ announcing an antitrust investigation into price fixing among the nation’s canneries.

Olean also cited several other examples of movement of top executives among the canneries, such as Lischewski, who was a top StarKist executive before joining Bumble Bee. There were three other previous top StarKist executives who also moved to Bumble Bee, according to the complaint.

“Such movement of executives and the common friendships that were formed fostered collusion among all three companies; a former executive of one Defendant who now served at another Defendant would deem it permissible to share his current employer’s confidential information with his ex-colleagues,” Olean alleges.

Amended complaints by Olean and many other plaintiffs came a few months after two Bumble Bee executives were indicted by USDOJ as a result of its criminal investigation into a conspiracy to fix prices of canned and pouch tuna products, and the two executives are to be sentenced soon.

And on May 8th this year, USDOJ announced the indictment of Bumble Bee, which has agreed to plea guilty, to the same price fixing scheme.

(See Samoa News edition May 10th on Bumble Bee plea, with background information on its two executives, who were indicted.)