Summary
United States v. Archer Daniels Midland Co. was a criminal case filed on October 15, 1996 in which the United States alleged that Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) and other corporations and individuals engaged in a conspiracy to fix and maintain prices of lysine and citric acid and to restrain or eliminate competing suppliers of these additives in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act (15 U.S.C. § 1). ADM entered into a plea agreement in which ADM pleaded guilty to both antitrust counts and agreed to pay a combined fine of $100 million ($70 million for the lysine count and $30 million for the citric acid count). This is equivalent to $199.70 million in present-day terms and was at the time the largest antitrust fine ever imposed.[1][2][3][4]
| United States v. Archer Daniels Midland Co. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois |
| Defendant | Archer Daniels Midland Company |
| Prosecution | United States |
| Citation(s) | 96-CR-00640 |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Ruben Castillo |
| Keywords | |
| Antitrust, price fixing, Sherman Antitrust Act, lysine, citric acid | |
The United States' charges against ADM were the second round of charges brought as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust investigation into the food and feed additives industries. A few months earlier, in August 1996, the Japanese firms Ajinomoto Co., Inc. and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd. and U.S.-based Korean subsidiary Sewon America, Inc. and their executives agreed to pay more than $20 million combined for their participation in the lysine conspiracy.[1] The Department of Justice recovered more than $195 million in fines arising from its investigation.[5]
See also edit
References edit
- ^ a b U.S. Department of Justice (October 15, 1996). "Archer Daniels Midland Co. to Plead Guilty and Pay $100 Million for Role in Two International Price-Fixing Conspiracies" (PDF) (Press release). Washington, D.C. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 30, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2013.
- ^ PLEA AGREEMENT, October 15, 1996, archived from the original on October 12, 2008
- ^ Smith, Wm. Randolph (2000). "Pushing the Frontiers of Antitrust Law: Recent Developments" (PDF). 20 Energy & Min. L. Inst. ch. 5. Washington, D.C.: Energy & Mineral Law Foundation.
- ^ U.S. Department of Justice. "Antitrust Division Sherman Act Violations Yielding a Corporate Fine of $10 Million or More". Data.gov. Archived from the original on June 26, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2013.
- ^ U.S. Department of Justice (March 26, 1997). "Justice Department's Ongoing Probe Into the Food and Feed Additives Industry Yields $25 Million More in Criminal Fines" (Press release). Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2013.