The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is accusing a former senior sales executive with Starkist of conspiring to fix prices for shelf stable seafood, the first non-Bumble Bee Foods executive to be formally charged.

Stephen Hodge, the former senior vice president of sales with Starkist, ultimately owned by South Korean group Dongwon Enterprise, has been charged with one count of price fixing by the DOJ, according to a document filed on May 30 in the US district court of northern California. 

According to the document, Hodge conspired with executives from other companies to fix prices, from early 2011 until 2013.

Although no companies are named in the lawsuit, Hodge was with Starkist, one of the "big three" in the US tuna sector, along with Thai Union Group-owned Tri-Union Seafoods, which trades as Chicken of the Sea, and Bumble Bee. In early 2014, Undercurrent News reported Hodge had left Starkist. He was not immediately available for comment to Undercurrent on June 3.

Hodge’s name also appears on a list of 56 major industry players said to have participated in the alleged conspiracy in a civil lawsuit from retailer Walmart.

The list of 56, who are not listed as defendants in the Walmart lawsuit, also includes the CEOs of Thai Union, Dongwon, Bumble Bee and the president of the National Fisheries Institute, the industry group for the US seafood sector.

Hodge is the third executive to be charged by the DOJ with price fixing, after Ken Worsham and Walter Scott Cameron, both longtime Bumble Bee sales executives.

Read more at Undercurrent News