St. Paul ice company agrees to pay $9M fine
A Minnesota-based packaged ice company has agreed to pay a $9 million criminal fine for allegedly conspiring with a competitor to divide up the ice market in the Detroit area and southeastern Michigan, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
Arctic Glacier International Inc. is the second company to plead guilty to criminal charges stemming from an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the packaged ice industry, the department said. Home City Ice Co. of Cincinnati pleased guilty in June of 2008.
Three of the St. Paul company's former executives also reached plea deals, the department said.
Arctic Glacier International is the U.S. subsidiary of the Winnipeg, Canada-based Arctic Glacier Income Fund, which issued a statement saying the plea agreement followed 18 months of discussions with the Justice Department "combined with a thorough internal investigation."
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Keith McMahon, president and CEO, said in the statement that the company was unaware the practices were taking place when it acquired certain packaged ice companies operating in the southeastern Michigan and Detroit metropolitan markets in 2005.
McMahon said his company's board and senior executives in the head office committed themselves to cooperating fully with the investigation and identifying the responsible individuals once they became aware of the investigation.
"Arctic Glacier takes its obligation and commitment to abide by all laws and specifically competition laws very seriously," the statement said.
The charges against Arctic Glacier and the three former executives were filed under seal Sept. l0 and unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Cincinnati. The executives are: Frank Larson, a former executive vice president of operations; Keith Corbin, a former vice president of sales and marketing; and Gary Cooley, another former vice president of sales and marketing.
Charging documents released Tuesday did not specify whether Arctic Glacier conspired with Home City Ice or yet another company or companies, and the Justice Department press office in Washington did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday night. The documents allege the conspiracy was hatched and carried out in Ohio, with at least one set of discussions taking place in Cincinnati.
The defendants and their co-conspirators schemed to "suppress and eliminate competition" by allocating customers in southeastern Michigan and the Detroit metropolitan area among themselves, illegally restraining interstate trade, the documents said.
Under the plea agreements, which require court approval, Arctic Glacier and the former executives agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, the department said. The Justice Department statement did not say whether the plea deals for the men included sentencing recommendations or when they would be sentenced.