Sea Star says it removed employees
Sea Star Line LLC said Wednesday that it continues to cooperate with a U.S. Justice Department investigation into possible antitrust violations among carriers in the U.S. mainland-to-Puerto Rico trade, and had removed a small number of employees who violated company policy.
“We continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry, and do not anticipate any disruption of service or loss of customer satisfaction,” said Frank Peake, president and chief operating officer, in a brief statement. “Sea Star is committed to transparency in this matter and values the goodwill of our employees, our customers and our partners.”
Four carriers in the Puerto Rico trade have said in recent weeks that they have received subpoenas seeking information in a Justice Department probe. In addition to Sea Star, they are Horizon Lines, Crowley Maritime and Trailer Bridge. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited the offices of some carriers and seized files.
Chuck Raymond, chief executive of Horizon Lines, said last week in a telephone call with securities analysts that Horizon “has not been charged, and no individual in the company has been charged with an offense. We will continue to cooperate fully with DOJ on this and we certainly do not expect any service disruptions to come about as a result of this.”
Meanwhile, Alexander & Baldwin, owner of the U.S. mainland to Hawaii carrier Matson Navigation, said the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida had served it with a grand jury subpoena. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, A&B said the grand jury subpoena was related to the Justice Department’s investigation into Jones Act ocean carrier pricing. Matson is not involved in the Puerto Rico trade and that had led to questions about how broad the probe is.
Raymond, speaking to securities analysts, said, “we have not heard anything about Hawaii or Alaska,” other Jones Act trades in which Horizon participates.
Asked what the worst-case scenario was of the probe, whether the investigation could result in opening up of competition, Raymond declined to speculate.
