The High Price Of Leniency For Stolt-Nielsen

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The High Price Of Leniency For Stolt-Nielsen

"The High Price Of Leniency For Stolt-Nielsen" was

published in Competition Law 360, May 9, 2008

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's

Corporate Leniency Program ("Leniency Program") has

long been instrumental in the Antitrust Division's crusade

against antitrust violators, with antitrust violators entering

the Leniency Program at rates as high as two per month and

resulting in the prosecution of some of the Antitrust

Division's biggest cases.1

Many Leniency Program applicants walk away owing no fines,

facing substantially lowered civil liability, and with

agreements protecting their executives from prosecution.

Their former co-conspirators, on the other hand, are left

potentially facing hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and

lengthy prison terms.

This is what Leniency Program participants expect, but the

path to corporate leniency is not always smooth.

Stolt-Nielsen, a Luxembourg shipping company, understands

just how rough the road to leniency can be. Stolt-Nielsen

sought and received leniency, only later to have it revoked by

the Antitrust Division. The company and its officers were

thereafter indicted.

Leniency was replaced with aggressive prosecution for nearly

two years at which point the indictment was dismissed based on

Stolt-Nielsen's participation in the Leniency Program.

Until the indictment was dismissed at the end of 2007, some

questioned the very integrity of the Leniency Program. But even

while courts were grappli...

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