A former senior executive of StarKist, which owns the StarKist Samoa cannery in American Samoa, has been charged in the US with one-count of price fixing.
Stephen L. Hodge was charged in San Francisco amid an ongoing federal investigation into the seafood packaged industry.
The complaint alleges Mr Hodge and his co-conspirators knowingly entered into and engaged in a combination and conspiracy to fix, raise, and maintain the prices of packaged seafood - which includes shelf stable tuna fish sold in the US.
American Samoa tuna processing plant Photo: RNZI Monica Miller
He is the third person charged over price fixing.
The other two, Walter Scott Cameron and Kenneth Worsham, who are both executives of Bumble Bee Seafood, were charged last December.
Last month, the federal government charged Bumble Bee itself in connection with price fixing.
The criminal cases are separate from the more than 1,500 plaintiffs in civil lawsuits against the canned tuna companies, overseen by the federal court in San Diego.