The verdict is in and the five chicken industry executives on trial for conspiracy and bid rigging from 2012 to 2019 were acquitted by a jury in Denver federal court, Bloomberg reports. The verdict comes after two mistrials were declared when previous juries could not reach a decision. The decision was announced Thursday after more than a day of deliberations.
The verdict is considered a stinging defeat for Department of Justice prosecutors who moved forward with the case despite the two previous failures by narrowing their focus from 10 individuals to five. Acquitted in the case were former Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. chief executive officers Jayson Penn and William Lovette; Roger Austin, a former Pilgrim’s vice president; Mikell Fries, president of Claxton Poultry; and Scott Brady, a Claxton vice president.
Each defendant faced the possibility of a 10-year prison sentence and million-dollar fines if convicted.
When the DOJ announced it would pursue a third trial, US District Judge Philip Brimmer summoned Jonathan Kanter, the head of DOJ’s Antitrust Division, to Denver in April to explain why, after two hung juries, the government believed it could still win convictions.
“We know that the evidence couldn’t persuade 12 people,” a skeptical Brimmer told Kanter at the time. “We’ve seen it happen twice.”
“This case should never have been brought,” Bloomberg quoted Penn’s attorney, Michael Tubach, as saying after Thursday’s verdict.
The Justice Department issued a statement calling the verdict “disappointing,” but said “we will continue to vigorously enforce the antitrust laws, especially when it comes to price-fixing schemes that affect core staples. We will not be deterred from continuing to vigilantly pursue cases to protect the American people and our markets.”
Charges were first filed in the summer of 2021 after a years-long federal investigation that targeted the biggest producers in the $95 billion chicken market. Tyson said in 2020 it was cooperating with the investigation and cited a government policy that grants leniency to companies that are the first to disclose illegal price-fixing.
Longtime Pilgrim’s Pride employee Robert Bryant testified at all three trials for the government, claiming an industry-wide agreement to share price and bid information to inflate profits or limit losses, given specific market conditions.
Testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution, Bryant admitted on cross-examination that he had lied to the FBI “multiple times” on matters unrelated to the price-fixing investigation.
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