http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/05/05072002/reu_47136.asp - 5/7/2002 - ENN.com FTC says it is turning ADM ethanol price probe over to DOJ
Tuesday, May 07, 2002 By Soo Youn, Reuters NEW YORK - U.S. trade regulators said on Monday they will send a price-fixing investigation of Archer Daniels Midland and other producers of the gasoline additive ethanol to the Department of Justice, in a sign the case could turn into a criminal probe. "After reviewing these materials, staff of the FTC's Bureau of Competition has transmitted them to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice," the Federal Trade Commission's General Counsel William Kovacic wrote in a letter to Doug Ose, the head of the House Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs. Late last month, Ose, a California Republican, introduced internal memoranda by ADM and other ethanol producers indicating collusion to set prices for alcohol originating from surplus European wine to finish into the gasoline additive. During the April 23 hearing, Ose asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the allegations. After an initial review, the FTC turned the probe over to the Department of Justice, which is authorized to investigate criminal matters. Ose, an opponent of an ethanol mandate passed as part of the broader Senate energy bill, said the transferring of the investigation implied illegal activity. "The fact that the FTC referred these documents to the Department of Justice raises a new set of concerns regarding criminal violations by the ethanol industry," Ose said. "Although the FTC and the Justice Department can both investigate antitrust violations, the Justice Department is primarily responsible for investigating criminal violations," he added. ADM, which produces 41 percent of ethanol in the United States, has long touted the benefits of ethanol as a boon to U.S. farmers and U.S. energy security because most of the product is made from American corn. However, the documents under review suggest that the company has been rigging bids to buy European wine alcohol before processing it into ethanol in the Caribbean. In doing so, the company appears to have benefited from advantage of subsidies both in Europe and the United States, Ose said. "There still is not any allegation of impropriety regarding the sale of ethanol," said Larry Cunningham, the company's senior vice president of corporate affairs. "It has to do with purchases of wine alcohol in the European Union 8 or 10 years ago. We are doing fact-finding at ADM to determine what the facts are," Cunningham added. In 1996 ADM pleaded guilty to fixing prices of two other products and paid a $100 million fine, and three of its executives were convicted of criminal charges and sent to prison. Copyright 2002, Reuters ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Stock for $4 and no minimums. FREE Money 2002. http://us.click.yahoo.com/orkH0C/n97DAA/Ey.GAA/9bTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
