U.S. court accepts Odfjell’s plea bargaining in market-fixing case
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has accepted the plea agreements of Norwegian chemical tanker shipping company Odfjell Seachem AS and its senior executives Bj'rn Sjaastad and Erik Nilsen that followed a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into market-fixing practices in the tanker shipping market.
Under the plea agreement, Odfjell and its senior executives agreed to a fine of $42.5 million for the company and prison sentences of three to four months for the two executives.
Odfjell ASA’s wholly owned subsidiary, Odfjell Seachem AS, agreed to plead guilty to a violation of the U.S. Sherman Antitrust Act for “allocating customers” and thereby fixing prices on certain contracts of affreightment from 1998 to 2002.