Overseas executives charged with bid rigging
The U.S. Justice Department said eight executives from the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan were arrested last week in Houston and San Francisco and charged for their role in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices, and allocate markets sales of marine hose sold in the United States.
Marine hose is a flexible rubber hose used to transport oil between tankers and storage facilities and buoys.
Marine hose is purchased by companies such as Shell, Exxon and Chevron that are involved in the offshore extraction and transportation of petroleum products, as well as the Defense Department.
Court papers allege that during the conspiracy the conspirators sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marine hose and related products.
A criminal complaint was unsealed U.S. District Court in Miami against four executives:
* Peter Whittle, owner of the U.K.-based consulting firm PW Consulting (Oil & Marine) Ltd.
* Bryan Allison, managing director, and David Brammar, sales and marketing director, both of the U.K. company Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd.
* Jacques Cognard, oil and marine manager of Trelleborg Industrie S.A. in France.
A separate criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. against four executives:
* Christian Caleca, president of the Industrial Hose Business Unit of Trelleborg Industrie S.A. in France.
* Vanni Scodeggio, a business unit manager at Parker ITR slr in Italy.
* Francesco Scaglia, a product manager at Manuli Rubber Industries SpA in Italy.
* Misao Hioki, an executive involved in the sale of marine hose for Bridgestone Corp. in Japan.
According to the criminal complaints, the charged executives participated in the conspiracy at various times during the period from at least 1999 to the present. Simultaneous with the arrests, agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) of the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General executed search warrants at locations across the United States. While those searches were being conducted, competition authorities abroad, the Office of Fair Trading in the United Kingdom and the European Commission, executed search warrants in Europe.
According an affidavit filed in Miami the conspirators discussed and agreed to the rules for implementing their bid rigging, price fixing and allocation scheme. They also allegedly kept agendas and detailed “minutes” of cartel meetings.
Conspiring manufacturers allegedly provided Whittle with information about upcoming marine hose jobs, and Whittle then designated which conspirator would win the job.