Three marine hose execs to serve jail sentences in UK

ERJ staff report (DS)

Washington, DC -- Three UK executives who admitted to fixing prices in the global marine hose industry have been sentenced to fines and jail terms for their crimes..

In a ground-breaking agreement between the US and UK, the three will serve their sentences in the UK.

Peter Whittle, sole proprietor of a consulting business named PW Consulting (Oil & Marine); Bryan Allison, managing director of Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd.; and David Brammar, Dunlop's sales and marketing director all agreed to plead guilty to a single-count felony charge of violating the Sherman Act in the United States. They will be sentenced to fines and jail terms. Then the three will be escorted in custody back to the UK to allow them to cooperate with the UK-based Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) investigation of violations of the United Kingdom's Enterprise Act of 2002 and to allow them to plead guilty to violating the Enterprise Act.

Whittle has agreed to serve 30 months in jail, Allison has agreed to serve 24 months in jail and Brammar has agreed to serve 20 months in jail. These are the longest prison sentences that foreign national defendants charged with antitrust offenses have agreed to serve in the US-based Antitrust Division's history. As part of their plea agreements, Whittle and Allison have each agreed to pay a $100 000 (Euro 68 000) fine, and Brammar has agreed to pay a $75 000 (Euro 51 000) fine.

Eight foreign executives, including Whittle, Allison and Brammar, were arrested on 2 May, 2007, in Houston and San Francisco and charged for their roles in the marine hose cartel, following their participation in a cartel meeting in Houston. Francesco Scaglia and Val Northcutt, executives with Manuli Rubber Industries SpA, were indicted in September 2007 in US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for their roles in the conspiracy.

The case has been put on the court's May 2008 trial docket. In November 2007, Christian Caleca and Jacques Cognard, executives with Trelleborg Industrie SAS, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from their roles in the conspiracy and have agreed to recommended prison sentences of 14 months each. Two other foreign executives were arrested and charged in May 2007-Vanni Scodeggio, a business unit manager at Parker ITR srl in Italy, and Misao Hioki, an executive involved in the sale of marine hose for Bridgestone Corp. in Japan.

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Press release from US Dept of Justice