Antitrust Division accepts rare misdemeanor guilty plea

Lisa Phelan spoke to Global Competition Review about the Department of Justice's (DOJ) decision to reduce a fugitive fuel executive's charge to a misdemeanor under a seldom-used provision of the Sherman Act that extends antitrust liability to a company’s "individual directors, officers, or agents."

Lisa said the government may have decided that agreeing to resolve this case on more favorable terms to the defendant would encourage fugitives to submit to U.S. jurisdiction and potentially cooperate against other defendants in the case.

“The potential risk with this approach is that future international targets of investigations will decide it is better to become a fugitive, and wait the DOJ out for several years, as they will likely be able to get better terms of resolution later from the government," she said.

Read the full article.