Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of federal price fixing charges - not the sanitized version about antitrust compliance, not the fiction that price fixing requires smoky-room conspiracies with explicit agreements, but the actual truth about what happens when the Department of Justice Antitrust Division comes for executives who thought they were just doing normal business.
Here is what nobody tells you until your facing indictment: by the time you learn your under investigation, the DOJ has spent 3 to 5 years building your prosecution. They've already executed search warrants - cloning your hard drives at 6am while you were still sleeping. Theyve already interviewed cooperating witnesses. And heres the devastating part nobody explains: your former collegue, the one you trusted for 20 years, already raced to the DOJ and testified against you in exchange for complete immunity.
The person who goes to prison isnt the person who did the most. Its the person who called the DOJ second.
How a Text Message Becomes a Federal Felony
Most executives think price fixing requires an explicit agreement. A handshake deal. A written contract saying "we agree to fix prices." They think there imagining a Hollywood conspiracy.
Heres the thing that changes everything. Under federal antitrust law - specifically Section 1 of the Sherman Act - price fixing is what lawyers call a "per se" violation. This means intent dosent matter. Harm dosent matter. The agreement itself IS the crime, and that "agreement" can be proven through circumstancial evidence.
Think about what this means practicaly. That text message you sent after the trade show saying "lets keep pricing stable this quarter" - thats federal felony evidence. The email to a competitor about "market conditions" - thats conspiracy documentation. The industry dinner where you discussed "rational pricing" - thats a criminal meeting.
You didnt need to sign anything. You didnt need to explicitly say "lets fix prices." Under the governments theory, your communications about pricing with competitors - communications that happen in every industry, in every trade association, at every conference - can become federal felony charges.
At Spodek Law Group, weve seen executives devastated by this reality. They genuinley beleive they did nothing wrong. There networking and competitor communications felt like normal business. But federal prosecutors dont see it that way. They see a conspiracy. And they have your own emails to prove it.
The Race You Dont Know Your Running
Now heres the hidden connection that explains why some executives go to prison while others walk free for the exact same conduct.
The DOJ Antitrust Division runs something called the Leniency Program. Type A leniency is AUTOMATIC complete immunity for the FIRST company to report price fixing - if no investigation is already pending. No negotiation. No discretion. First one to the door gets immunity.
Type B leniency is discretionary - if an investigation has already started, the government MAY grant reduced penalties to cooperators. But theres no guarantee.
Think about what this creates. A prisoners dilemma where everyone races to confess. Your trusted competitor, the industry peer youve known for decades, the colleague you shared confidences with at conferences - they all have the same incentive. Call the DOJ first. Get immunity. Let the other executives go to prison.
Heres were it gets really troubling. You dont know the race has started. The DOJ investigates for 3-5 years before notifying targets. During those years, one of your competitors might hear a rumor that investigation is coming. They contact the DOJ immediatly. They get immunity. They start testifying against you.
By the time you recieve that grand jury subpeona, by the time you even learn your a target, your competitor has already recorded detailed testimony about every conversation you ever had. There freedom depends on your conviction. And you just found out the race happened two years ago.
Why Your Companys Lawyer Cant Save You
OK so heres the part about corporate legal representation that most executives never understand until its too late.
Your company has lawyers. They've handled antitrust compliance for years. When the investigation starts, you naturaly assume theyll protect you. Theyre YOUR lawyers, right?
Wrong. This is the cruel irony that destroys individual executives.
When the DOJ investigates a company for price fixing, the company has one option for leniency: full cooperation. Full cooperation means turning over all documents. It means making executives available to testify. And heres the devastating part - it often means providing testimony AGAINST individual executives.
The companys lawyer represents the company. There fiduciary duty is to the company. When the companys interests diverge from yours - when sacrificing you means the company gets immunity - the companys lawyer has a legal obligation to sacrifice you.
Todd Spodek has seen this pattern destroy clients. They trusted the corporate counsel. They answered questions thinking they had legal protection. They discovered too late that every word they said was being passed to federal prosecutors. By the time they hired there own defense attorney, the damage was done.
Professional rules actualy REQUIRE separate counsel when conflicts emerge. But often that requirement kicks in after youve already talked. After the company has already started cooperating. After your statements have already been documented.
The company gets immunity. You get indicted. And you finaly understand what "corporate" representation actualy means.
What the DOJ Already Knows About You
Heres the system revelation that exposes how federal antitrust investigations actualy work.
The investigation started years ago. Maybe an industry competitor reported to get leniency. Maybe a disgruntled employee called the tip line. Maybe routine monitoring flagged suspicious pricing patterns. Whatever triggered it, the DOJ has been investigating you for years before you knew.
What happens during those years? The DOJ executes search warrants at dawn - literaly at 6am before anyone arrives at the office. They clone hard drives and server images. They seize documents. This happens BEFORE anyone is notified, specificaly so nobody can delete anything.
They interview cooperating witnesses. People whove already cut deals provide testimony about every meeting, every conversation, every email. Those witnesses have strong incentives to remember things that are useful to prosecutors.
They issue grand jury subpeonas for records. Phone records. Email records. Travel records showing you attended the same conferences as competitors. The grand jury process is completley secret - you have no idea whos testified or what theyve said.
They may be monitoring your communications right now. Wiretaps. Email intercepts. They may have recordings you dont even remember making.
By the time you recieve notification that your a target, the government has built an overwelming case. They know what you said, who you said it to, when you said it. They have your former collegues testifying against you. They have your own words in your own emails.
The investigation started years ago. You just found out today.
The Math That Sends Executives to Prison
Let me be specific about the numbers, becuase most people dont understand what federal antitrust penalties actualy look like.
For individuals: $1 million maximum fine per violation. Ten years maximum prison sentence per count. And heres the record: Frank Peake, former CEO of Sea Star Line, recieved 60 months - five full years - in federal prison for conspiring to fix shipping prices to Puerto Rico. His subordinate Peter Baci got 48 months. Competitor executive Gabriel Serra got 34 months.
These are shipping executives. They coordinated on cargo surcharges. And they went to federal prison for years.
Chris Lischewski, former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, was convicted by jury in 2019 for price fixing in the canned tuna market. His sentence: 40 months in federal prison plus $100,000 fine. Four cooperating witnesses testified against him - people who worked for him, people he trusted.
For corporations: $100 million maximum fine, or twice the gain from the conspiracy, or twice the loss caused - whichever is greater. Pilgrims Pride paid $107 million in fines for the broiler chicken price fixing conspiracy.
But the criminal penalties are just the begining. Civil lawsuits follow. Treble damages - three times the actual harm. Class action plaintiffs pile on. SEC investigations start. Shareholder derivative suits emerge.
One email about pricing → DOJ investigation → search warrant → indictment → media coverage → job loss → trial → conviction → prison → civil lawsuits → bankruptcy. The consequence cascade is total.
What Happens in the Next 48 Hours
If your reading this becuase you recieved a grand jury subpeona, becuase FBI agents contacted you, becuase you've heard rumors of investigation in your industry - the window for effective response is extremly narrow.
First, understand the leniency calculus. If your company hasnt been contacted yet, racing to the DOJ for Type A leniency might be possible. But this requires full cooperation including testimony against others. The decision has to be made immediately - before competitors get there first.
Second, understand the representation conflict. DO NOT use company lawyers for your personal defense. Get your own attorney immediately. Anything you say to company counsel can and will be shared with prosecutors as part of corporate cooperation.
Third, preserve everything. The temptation to delete will be overwhelming. Resist it. Obstruction of justice charges can carry longer sentences then the underlying antitrust violations. The cover-up is always worse then the crime.
Fourth, stop all competitor communications immediately. Every text, every email, every phone call from this moment forward could become evidence. Assume your being monitored becuase you might be.
At Spodek Law Group, we understand the antitrust defense landscape. We know the leniency program dynamics. We know how to navigate the conflict between corporate interests and individual executive protection. And we know that the decisions you make in the next 48 hours will determine wheather you spend years in federal prison or walk free while others face the consequences.
The race started years ago. You just found out. Call us at 212-300-5196 before your competitors call the DOJ.
