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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT
OF PENNSYLVANIA
| | UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA | ) | Crim. No.: 96-40013NMG
| | | | ) | | |
| v. | ) | Violations:
| | | | ) |
15 U.S.C. § 1
| | | AMCEL CORP., |
) | 18 U.S.C. § 2
| | | DISPOZ-O PLASTICS,
INC., | ) |
| | | LLOYD GORDON, and
| ) | Filed: [6/26/96]
| | | PETER IACOVELLI,
| ) | | | | | ) | Judge: Brody
| | | Defendants. |
) | |
INDICTMENT
The Grand Jury charges:
1. AMCEL CORP., DISPOZ-O
PLASTICS, INC., LLOYD GORDON, and PETER
IACOVELLI are indicted and made defendants on the charge stated
below.
DESCRIPTION OF THE OFFENSE
2. Beginning at least as early as
November 1991 and continuing at least until April,
1992, the exact dates being unknown to the Grand Jury, the
defendants and co-conspirators
entered into and engaged in a combination and conspiracy to fix
prices of certain disposable
plastic cutlery products sold throughout the United States. The
combination and conspiracy
unreasonably restrained interstate trade and commerce in violation
of Title 15, United States
Code, Section 1, commonly known as the Sherman Antitrust
Act.
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3. The charged conspiracy consisted of
a continuing agreement, understanding, and
concert of action among the defendants and co-conspirators, the
substantial term of which was to
fix the price of certain disposable plastic cutlery products by
establishing and implementing price
increases for those products.
DEFENDANTS
AND CO-CONSPIRATORS
4. Defendant AMCEL CORP.
("AMCEL") is a corporation organized and existing
under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with its
principle place of business in
Watertown, Massachusetts. During the period covered by this
Indictment, defendant AMCEL
manufactured and sold disposable plastic cutlery throughout the
United States.
5. During the period covered by this
Indictment, defendant LLOYD GORDON
("GORDON") was the president and owner of defendant
AMCEL.
6. Defendant DISPOZ-O PLASTICS,
INC. ("DISPOZO") is a corporation organized
and existing under the laws of the State of South Carolina with its
principle place of business in
Fountain Inn, South Carolina. During the period covered by this
Indictment, defendant
DISPOZO manufactured and sold disposable plastic cutlery
throughout the United States.
7. During the period covered by this
Indictment, defendant PETER IACOVELLI
("IACOVELLI") was the president and owner of defendant
DISPOZO.
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8. Various corporations and
individuals, not named as defendants in this Indictment,
participated as co-conspirators in the offense charged and
performed acts and made statements in
furtherance of it.
THE PLASTIC CUTLERY INDUSTRY
9. Defendants AMCEL and DISPOZO
manufacture, among other things, plastic
cutlery, including knives, forks, spoons and sporks. Plastic cutlery
is manufactured using either
polypropylene or polystyrene resin purchased from petrochemical
companies. Polypropylene
cutlery is flexible and generally less expensive than polystyrene
cutlery, which is rigid and
considered a more upscale product. In addition, plastic cutlery is
sold in different weights (e.g.,
light-, medium- and heavy-weight). Medium-weight polypropylene
cutlery is one of the most
popular and best selling types of plastic cutlery.
10. The defendant corporations sell plastic cutlery nationwide to
distributors and
end-users in the food service industry, however, defendants
AMCEL's and DISPOZO's sales are
strongest in the eastern part of the United States. Each of the
defendant corporations sells
medium-weight polypropylene cutlery. Sales of plastic cutlery may
be at list prices or, much
more frequently, on the basis of some negotiated discount off of list
prices.
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BACKGROUND
OF THE CONSPIRACY
11. Since at least 1990 defendants GORDON and IACOVELLI have
discussed cutlery
pricing with various individuals employed by competing cutlery
manufacturers. These
discussions often occurred around the time of industry-wide plastic
cutlery price increases.
12. Most of the major cutlery manufacturers in the U.S. announced
price increases in
October and November 1990, and again in May 1991. Before both
price increases, defendant
GORDON had contacts with Andrew Liebmann ("Liebmann"), an
executive of Polar Plastics
("Polar"), during which defendant GORDON asked Liebmann to
agree to increase Polar's prices
on certain cutlery items. In addition, around the time of the May
1991 price increase
announcement, defendant GORDON called defendant IACOVELLI
to discuss pricing of plastic
cutlery.
MEANS AND
METHODS OF THE CONSPIRACY
13. For the purpose of forming and carrying out the charged
conspiracy, the
defendants and co-conspirators, among other things:
a. met at an industry trade show in
October 1991 to discuss the need for a price
increase;
b. held a secret meeting at the
LaGuardia Airport in New York on November 25,
1991 to discuss and agree upon price
increases for certain plastic cutlery products;
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c. reached agreements during the
LaGuardia Airport meeting to raise prices of
certain plastic cutlery products;
d. agreed to implement the
price-fixing scheme by announcing floor prices for
certain plastic cutlery products;
e. discussed and agreed during the
LaGuardia Airport meeting that Polar would be
the first conspirator to announce the
agreed upon floor prices to its customers;
f. issued price increase announcements establishing floor prices consistent with
the
price-fixing agreement reached
during the LaGuardia Airport meeting;
g. contacted each other by telephone or
otherwise to implement, monitor and police
the agreement; and
h. attempted to conceal the conspiracy
by, among other things, taking steps to leave
no record of their attendance at the
LaGuardia Airport meeting.
TRADE AND COMMERCE
14. During the period covered by this Indictment, the defendants and
co-conspirators
sold and shipped plastic cutlery in a continuous and uninterrupted
flow of interstate commerce to
customers located in states other than the states in which the
defendants and co-conspirators
produced the plastic cutlery.
15. The business activities of the defendants and co-conspirators that
are the subject
of this Indictment were within the flow of, and substantially
affected, interstate trade and
commerce.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
16. The combination and conspiracy charged in this Indictment was
carried out, in
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part, within the Eastern District of Pennsylvania within the five
years preceding the return of this
Indictment.
ALL IN VIOLATION OF TITLE 15, UNITED STATES CODE,
SECTION 1, AND
TITLE 18, UNITED STATES CODE, SECTION 2.
A TRUE BILL
Dated:
____________"/s/"________________
FOREPERSON
____________"/s/"________________
__________"/s/"_____________
Anne K. Bingaman J. Brady Dugan
Assistant Attorney General
____________"/s/"________________
___________"/s/"____________
Gary R. Spratling Scott D.
Hammond
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
____________"/s/"________________ ___________"/s/"____________
Anthony Nanni Peter J.
Levitas
Attorneys, Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
____________"/s/"________________ 1401 H Street, N.W.
David Blotner Washington,
D.C. 20530
(202) 307-6579
Attorneys, Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
____________"s/"________________
Michael R. Stiles
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United States Attorney
Eastern District of Pennsylvania
.
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