CEO of Chicken Giant Pilgrim’s Pride Charged in Price Fix Probe
- Justice Department continues to investigate chicken processors
- Claxton Poultry Farms executives were also charged in case
A statue of Pilgrim's Pride founder Lonnie Pilgrim displayed outside the distribution center near Pittsburg, Texas.
Photographer: LM Otero/APThis article is for subscribers only.
The chief executive officer of Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., America’s second-biggest chicken producer, was charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiring to fix prices as part of an antitrust investigation of chicken-processing companies.
Jayson Penn was indicted by a grand jury in Colorado along with Roger Austin, a former vice president of the company, the Justice Department said Wednesday. They face a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.