CSAV executive indicted for price fixing, bid rigging

The CSAV executive, Mauricio Javier Garrido Garcia (Garrido), is accused of participating in the conspiracy from as early as 2000 until at least September 2012.    An executive from the Chilean Shipping Company Compañia Sudamericana de Vapores S.A. (CSAV) has been indicted for his participation in a long-running conspiracy to restrain trade in international ocean shipments of roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) cargo to and from the Port of Baltimore and elsewhere in the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday in a press release.
   A grand jury in the District of Maryland returned the indictment.
   An indictment is a formal charging document, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
   The CSAV executive, Mauricio Javier Garrido Garcia (Garrido), who is a resident of Chile, is charged with allocating customers and routes; rigging bids; and fixing prices for international ocean shipments of RoRo cargo including cars, trucks, construction and agriculture equipment.
   Garrido is accused of participating in the conspiracy from as early as 2000 until at least September 2012.
   He is the eighth executive to be charged in the investigation to date. Four individuals have already pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to prison, while three others have been indicted but remain fugitives from justice. CSAV and two other companies have also pleaded guilty and paid over $136 million in criminal fines.
   “This long-running conspiracy restrained trade in one of the main channels of international commerce – the oceans,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata B. Hesse, head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s indictment further demonstrates the division’s commitment to holding accountable ocean-shipping executives who participated in this scheme.”