"Some of America’s Top Chicken Purveyors Are Under Investigation for Price Fixing" (plus Adam Smith does a cameo)
In 2016:
Questions America Wants Answered: "Are Chicken Prices Being Manipulated?"
And 'ol Adam?
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."
— Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Book I, Ch. 10, ¶ 82)
From CNBC:
Pilgrim’s Pride CEO and other chicken industry executives indicted for price fixing
....MOREFour current and former chicken industry executives, including Pilgrim’s Pride CEO Jayson Penn, have been indicted for price fixing.
- Current and former executives from Pilgrim’s Pride and Claxton Poultry Farms have been indicted for price fixing.
- A grand jury in the U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado indicted all four with one count of conspiring to fix prices for broiler chickens from at least 2012 through 2017.
- The Department of Justice said that the investigation is still ongoing.
Shares of Pilgrim’s Pride plunged as much as 13% in afternoon trading. The stock, which has a market value of $4.46 billion, has fallen 44% so far in 2020. Shares of Tyson Foods, which was not named in the indictment, also fell on the news.
The other executives allegedly involved in the scheme include former Pilgrim’s Pride vice president Roger Austin, Claxton Poultry Farms President Mikell Fries and Scott Brady, a former Pilgrim’s Pride executive who joined Claxton in 2012. Pilgrim’s Pride supplies chicken for Costco and Yum Brands’ KFC, while Claxton is a supplier for Chick-fil-A....
