Freight Forwarder Executives Arrested for Alleged Price-Fixing Scheme
The owner and manager of a New Orleans-based freight forwarder were recently arrested for their part in a conspiracy to fix prices for international freight forwarding services, the Justice Department said in a July 3 press release. A complaint unsealed June 29 in Eastern Louisiana U.S. District Court alleges Roberto Dip, owner and CEO of the unnamed forwarder, and Jason Handal, its manager, schemed with other forwarders to raise prices on their U.S. customers for shipments to Honduras and elsewhere, beginning with a meeting held in Honduras in 2014.
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The conspirators met at several locations in the U.S. and Honduras, including New Orleans, to further the price-fixing scheme. They established “commissions” in port cities throughout the U.S. to coordinate and agree to specific rates. One email from Dip to Handal confirmed that, at one point, all but one competitor agreed to raise prices in New Orleans. Another cautioned that the Federal Maritime Commission “cannot have a hand in something like this because it is illegal for businesses to set the price for price fixing.”
Both Dip and Handal are being charged with violating the Sherman Act by engaging in a conspiracy to unreasonably restrain trade and commerce through an agreement to raise and fix prices. Handal was released on a $500,000 bond after a July 3 detention hearing, while Dip was ordered detained pending trial. “As these arrests show, the Division and its law enforcement partners are committed to prosecuting senior executives who conspire to cheat American customers in vital international industries,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of DOJ’s Antitrust Division. The investigation is ongoing, and DOJ is urging anyone with information to get in touch by phone or report it on the DOJ website.