Sea Star executive sentenced to 4 years

Sea Star executive sentenced to 4 years Peter Baci, a former Sea Star Line executive, has been sentenced to four years in jail for his role in an antitrust conspiracy involving the transportation of goods to and from the continental United States and Puerto Rico.
   The U.S. Justice Department said it was the longest jail sentence ever imposed for a single antitrust charge.
   Baci, of Jacksonville, Fla., formerly senior vice president of yield management and Caribbean services, pleaded guilty on Oct. 20, 2008, in the U.S. District Court in Jacksonville for his role in the conspiracy, which the government said ran from at least May 2002 through as late as April 2008.
   Baci was charged with engaging in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition in the coastal water freight transportation services between the continental United States and Puerto Rico by agreeing to allocate customers, agreeing to rig bids submitted to government and commercial buyers, and agreeing to fix the prices of rates, surcharges and other fees charged to customers.
   Related antitrust charges also remain pending in the U.S. District Court in Jacksonville against three former shipping executives from Horizon Lines: R. Kevin Gill and Gregory Glova, of Charlotte, N.C.; and Gabriel Serra, of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Serra was Horizon’s senior vice president and general manager of Puerto Rico.
   A related obstruction of justice charge is also pending against another Sea Star executive, Alexander Chisholm of Jacksonville, who pleaded guilty to destroying computer files sought by investigators after raids by federal agents.
   “Today’s sentencing should make clear that individuals who violate the antitrust laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Scott D. Hammond, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Significant jail time will be a consequence of harming consumers and competition in both the continental United States and Puerto Rico.”
   In June 2004, Congress raised the maximum sentence for antitrust crimes from three years imprisonment to 10 years. While longer jail sentences have been imposed against individuals who violated the antitrust laws together with other crimes, this case represents the first time that an individual was sentenced to more than three years for a single antitrust charge.
   Sea Star and Horizon Lines, as well as other Jones Act carriers have been named as defendants in various civil suits filed by shippers. ' Chris Dupin