Pilgrim’s Pride, one of the nation’s largest chicken processors, has reached a $75 million deal to settle price fixing claims. The company will be coughing up the largest settlement thus far in a drawn-out legal battle over alleged collusion among the companies which dominate America’s $65 billion chicken industry.
The deal comes just three months after the company agreed to a $110.5 million fine with the Department of Justice. In that deal, which officials say affected three contracts for sale of chicken products to one customer in the U.S., the DOJ would not bring further charges against the company or recommend a monitor or any probationary period.
In June, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado, returned an indictment against Jayson Penn, then president and CEO of the company, along with former Pilgrim’s Pride Vice President Roger Austin, for their role in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chickens across the nation from at least as early as 2012 until 2017. Additionally indicted were Claxton Poultry President Mikell Fries and Vice President Scott Brady.
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