The US District Court in Miami has sentenced two executives for their role in a conspiracy to fix prices of international freight forwarding services, according to the US Department of Justice.
Roberto Dip and Jason Handal were charged with fixing prices in June 2018, and pleaded guilty in November 2018. A magistrate judge in Miami ordered Dip detained pending trial; he served over five months in jail before being released on bond.
Dip, the president and CEO of a Louisiana-based freight forwarding company, and Handal, the company’s manager, organized meetings throughout the US, where they reached agreements with their competitors to fix the prices for freight forwarding services provided in the United States and elsewhere from at least as early as September 2010 until at least March 2015.
Dip was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, with credit for time served. Handal was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment. Each executive was also sentenced to pay a $20,000 criminal fine and to three years of supervised release.
Today’s sentences reflect the significant harm that the defendants caused, and should send a message to other would-be price-fixers that this crime will not go unpunished,
…said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
