Plea deal is reached on chicken price-fixing

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. has reached a plea agreement with the federal government over charges of price-fixing in the chicken industry.

Under the agreement, Pilgrim’s Pride would pay a fine of $110.5 million as a penalty for restraining competition in three separate contracts with a U.S. customer. In exchange, the U.S. Department of Justice would not bring further charges against Pilgrim’s Pride or recommend a monitor or any probationary period.

The agreement must still be approved by the U.S. District Court in Colorado. Pilgrim’s Pride, based in Greeley, Colorado, had been scheduled to face price-fixing charges in federal court Thursday, according to court filings.

The Department of Justice confirmed the plea deal but said it won’t comment until the agreement is filed with the court.

The agreement does not appear to affect ongoing cases against former Pilgrim’s Pride executives.

In June, the government charged two executives — Pilgrim’s Price President and CEO Jayson Penn and former Vice President Roger Austin — with conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chickens from at least 2012 to 2017. Both have pleaded not guilty. Penn left Pilgrim’s Pride last month.

The charges were among the first in a long-running government investigation into price-fixing in the poultry industry. Last week, a federal grand jury in Colorado indicted six more employees at chicken suppliers on price-fixing charges. Ten people have been charged in all.

One of Pilgrim’s Pride’s competitors, Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc., said in June that it was cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation. Tyson said it received a grand jury subpoena in April 2019 and shared documents with the government.