On April 24, 2014, the district court in the Southern District of Florida sentenced Romano Pisciotti to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a one-count felony indictment for participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose sold in the United States and abroad.1 While criminal convictions and prison sentences in the antitrust context are noteworthy in their own right, Pisciotti’s conviction carries even more clout because it came less than three weeks after Pisciotti’s extradition from Germany—the first ever extradition of a defendant to the United States on antitrust charges. While undoubtedly a significant victory for the Department of Justice, highlighting the Antitrust Division’s continuous and vigorous criminal enforcement activities under the Sherman Act, the lasting impact of Pisciotti’s extradition is yet undetermined.
Pisciotti was not the only at large criminal antitrust defendant sought by the United States; indeed, another individual from this very same conspiracy remains at large today, seemingly out of reach of U.S. antitrust enforcers. Nonetheless, even if Pisciotti fails to signal a watershed moment with droves of extraditions to follow, the deterrent effects will likely still be felt.
