The second federal trial for 10 poultry industry executives accused of conspiring to rig bids and drive up the price of chicken has started after the first one ended in a mistrial when a jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Those facing federal antitrust-related charges are Mikell Fries, president of Claxton Poultry, Bill Lovette, former CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride; Jayson Penn, also a former CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride, Scott Brady, vice president of Claxton Poultry; Timothy Mulrenin, an executive with Perdue Farms who formerly worked for Tyson Foods; William Kantola, an executive with Koch Foods; Jimmie Little, a former Pilgrim’s Pride sales director; Rickie Blake, a former director and manager at George’s; Roger Austin, a former Pilgrim’s vice president; and Gary Roberts, a Case Farms employee and former Tyson Foods employee.
Fries, Penn, Brady and Austin were the first four to be indicted on federal charges, with that indictment occurring in June 2020. The indictment of the other six men occurred in October 2020.
The first trial occurred in 2011 and lasted seven weeks. After nearly four days of deliberations, the jury was unable to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared on December 16.
The charges were not dropped, however, and a second trial got underway February 23 at a federal court in Colorado. During the first day of the trial, a prosecutor said the suspects “worked as a united front against their customers,” according to a Law360 report.
The indictments that led up to the two trials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), 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.
