DENVER — The CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride is one of four current and former chicken company executives who have been indicted on charges of price-fixing.
The Justice Department (DOJ) says a federal grand jury in Denver found that executives from Colorado-based Pilgrim’s Pride and Georgia-based Claxton Poultry conspired to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chickens from at least 2012 to 2017.
Broiler chickens are chickens raised for human consumption and sold to grocers and restaurants.
Among those charged is Pilgrim's Pride CEO Jayson Penn.
They are the first executives to be charged in a long-running investigation of price-fixing in the chicken industry. The executives could face 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by victims if either amount is greater than $1 million, the DOJ said.
This case is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price-fixing, bid-rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the broiler chicken industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General, Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington Field Office, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.
Pilgrim’s Pride is headquartered in Greeley.
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