By: Robert Connolly (Cartel Capers)
As far as criminal price fixing cases brought by the Antitrust Division, the indictment in US. v.. Neeraj Jindal, Case 4:20-cr-00358 (E.D. Texas, filed 12/9/20)(press release and indictment link here) would seem remarkable only in how insignificant the alleged conspiracy time period and volume of commerce are. Jindal was the owner of a therapist staffing company in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. He is charged with conspiring “from in or around March 2017 to in or around August 2017” by “agreeing to fix prices by lowering the pay rates” to physical therapists and physical therapists assistants. The indictment does not allege a volume of commerce. The indictment charges a second count of obstruction of justice alleging, “Specifically, the Defendant made false and misleading statements to the FTC and withheld and concealed information from the FTC.” The obstruction involved lying to the FTC, which began the wage-fixing investigation. The Department of Justice became involved since the FTC cannot bring criminal cases.
This is a small case with big implications. First, and this cannot be repeated enough, lying to federal agents during the investigation is a sure way to make a criminal prosecution attractive. Destroying documents, allowing yourself to be questioned without an attorney present (or lying about a material fact even if one is present) are all very bad ideas. This is an old message that is worth repeating. The real significance of the case, however, is that it is a partial answer to the question “Whatever happened to the criminal antitrust no-poach/wage fixing cases the Antitrust Division was warning about for the last several years?” This wage-fixing case, while very small in scope and commerce, speaks loudly of the Antitrust Division’s prosecutorial intent in this area. A little bit of the history of the Antitrust Division’s prosecutorial intent with respect to no-poach cases follows…
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