Juries Acquit Criminal Antitrust Defendants of All
Charges
This month, federal juries acquitted defendants facing
criminal antitrust convictions in two trials against employers
accused of improperly restraining trade in the labor market. On
April 14, a Texas federal jury acquitted physical therapy staffing
company executives Neeraj Jindal and John Rodgers of conspiracy to
fix prices in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The
Department of Justice alleged that Jindal and Rodgers agreed with
competitors to lower the rates paid to certain categories of
employees in concert. One day later, a Colorado federal jury
acquitted DaVita, Inc. and ex-CEO Ken Thiry of three counts of
conspiracy in restraint of trade. Here, the Department of Justice
alleged that DaVita and Thiry agreed with rivals not to recruit or
hire each other's employees. Earlier this year, the court
in DaVita denied defendants' motion to
dismiss and found the employers were sufficiently on notice that
no-poach agreements were per se illegal under
the Sherman Act. This was a significant win for the Department of
Justice and the first ruling of its kind. For
both DaVita and Jindal, the
Department sought to leverage the courts' decisions in other
pending criminal prosecutions of no-poach agreements. Yet, the
Department was unsuccessful in translating that
early DaVita win into success at either
trial.
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