Chris Lischewski, the former president and CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, who was convicted in December 2019 of belonging to a conspiracy that fixed the price of canned tuna, will face sentencing in June.
Originally scheduled for early April, Lischewski’s sentencing was postponed until 28 April, before being postponed for a second time, pushing the sentencing to 20 May. Under the order from California Second District Court Judge Edward Chen, Lischewski will now face sentencing on 3 June, following a 13 May deadline for filing sentencing memoranda and objections to the pre-sentence report, and a 27 May cutoff for filing responses to those sentencing memoranda. Lawyers for Lischewski have said the sentencing may be pushed even further back due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the United States.
“Due to the present health crisis, it remains unclear whether the sentencing will in fact go forward on that date,” they wrote in a 6 April filing.
Lischewski was found guilty of helping to orchestrate a price-fixing conspiracy between Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea, and StarKist, the so-called “Big Three” players in the U.S. canned tuna sector. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of USD 1 million (EUR 900,000).
Separately, parties in a class-action suit filed against the “Big Three” are making an effort to have a stay lifted that is blocking their fact-finding efforts against Lischewski. Representatives of the direct action plaintiff – one of four tracks of the class-action suit – have filed a motion to lift a stay put in place in advance of Lischewski’s trial. However, in a 6 April filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Lischewski’s lawyers pushed back, arguing the move is “premature and illogical.”
“Far from promoting a ‘speedy resolution of [its] claims,’ lifting the stay now will instead result in a morass of piecemeal discovery, needless disputes, and further delay,” the lawyers wrote in their motion. “Additionally, Mr. Lischewski is currently preparing to appeal his criminal conviction in the Northern District of California. He should be permitted to focus his resources and time on that appeal, rather than being forced to litigate against [plaintiffs] in this sprawling [motion for discovery].”
Lischewski’s attorneys have asked for three conditions to be met before Judge Janis L. Sammartino lifts the stay: the conclusion of Bumble Bee’s bankruptcy proceeding and the lifting of the bankruptcy court’s automatic stay against Bumble Bee, the conclusion of Lischewski’s appeal of his conviction, and Sammartino’s ruling on Lischewski’s pending motion to dismiss based on procedural arguments from 2018.
In their own filing, lawyers for the direct action plaintiffs dismissed Lischewski’s arguments for maintaining the stay.
“Lischewski was found guilty of price-fixing by a California jury. His former employer Bumble Bee has admitted … that Lischewski participated in the illegal price-fixing scheme from which this case arose. It is time [we] be permitted to seek compensation for his actions,” they wrote in a 13 April filing.
Sammartino had yet to decide the issue as of 20 April.
Photo courtesy of Bumble Bee Foods
