Tyson Foods says it is cooperating with Justice Department in chicken price-fixing probe
Tyson Foods Inc says it is cooperating with the US Justice Department in its price-fixing investigation in the poultry industry.
11 June 2020
2 minute read
By: Reuters reports that the company is operating under a programme that could protect it from criminal prosecution.
Tyson Foods Inc, which was served with a subpoena in April 2019, said the formal grant under the Justice Department’s corporate leniency programme would mean that neither the company nor its employees will face criminal fines, jail time or prosecution.
The news comes one week after the chief executive of Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, a competing poultry company, was indicted along with three other current and former poultry industry executives on charges of seeking to fix chicken prices in the US.
The charges were the first in a criminal probe of price-fixing and bid-rigging involving broiler birds, which account for most chicken meat sold in the United States.
Grocers, retailers and consumers have accused Pilgrim's Pride, Tyson Foods and other poultry processors of conspiring since 2008 to inflate prices for broiler chickens.
