Corporate & Securities Law

Court Dismisses Indictment Against Stolt-Nielsen

By Sheppard Mullin Richter Hampton, LLP

On November 29, 2007 a federal court in Philadelphia issued a decision granting the motion of Stolt-Nielsen (Stolt), a Luxembourg tanker shipping company, to dismiss a grand jury indictment against it for violations of Section 1 of the Sherman Act alleging it conspired with its competitors to allocate customers among them. Stolt had self reported the customer allocation scheme to the Department of Justice in 2002, and thereafter entered into a leniency agreement with the DOJ whereby it was immunized from prosecution based on representations that it had ceased the unlawful conduct and would cooperate in the investigation. The DOJ later notified Stolt that it had obtained evidence that Stolt did not terminate its participation in the conspiracy as represented, and thus the leniency conditions were not met. The indictment followed. In this decision, Judge Kaufman reviews the evidence and concludes that Stolt did take action to terminate its participation in the conspiracy as represented, and otherwise fulfilled its obligations under the leniency agreement. Our January blog will contain a complete review and analysis of this important decision.

Authored by:

Carlton A. Varner

(213) 617-4146

cvarner@sheppardmullin.com

Full post as published by Antitrust Blog Review on December 06, 2007 (boomark / email).