Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Seafood wholesaler executive pleads guilty to price fixing, (Sep 17, 2025)

By Jody Coultas, J.D.

The company vice president was charged by the Department of Justice with conspiring to fix prices for the purchase of stone crab claws and spiny lobster in Florida.

The Department of Justice Antitrust Division announced that the vice president of a seafood wholesale company has pleaded guilty to conspiring with competing companies to fix the prices for seafood. Between 2023 and 2025, the company vice president Dennis Dopico conspired with competing companies and their employees to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing the prices paid to fishermen for stone crab claws and spiny lobsters. “This case highlights the serious consequences of undermining the integrity of our nation’s natural resource markets,” said Assistant Director Doug Ault, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement (U.S. v. Dopico, No. 1:25-cr-20393-CMA (S.D. Fla. Sept. 10, 2025)).

Dopico’s employer purchased stone crab claws and spiny lobsters from fishermen who harvested them in various Florida locations, and operated a seafood processing center whereby it sold the seafood to restaurants, wholesalers, and consumers, including shipping such products throughout the United States and overseas. When the fishermen sell the crabs and lobsters, they negotiate the price and quantity typically to the buyer willing to pay the most. Dopico negotiated and purchased stone crab claws and spiny lobsters from the fishermen.

The complaint alleged that Dopico and his co-conspirators exchanged text messages and calls in which they coordinated and agreed on the prices they would pay fishermen and would adjust the prices together as the respective harvest seasons progressed. For example, on Sept. 28, 2023, following communications with a co-conspirator about spiny lobster prices Dopico replied “[d]on’t show text to anyone[.] Confidential,” to which the co-conspirator responded, “I give you my word. We’re working together now not against each other[.]” Later, on Oct. 13, 2023, the same co-conspirator texted Dopico new stone crab claw prices. Dopico responded, “[l]et me know what you do. I am matching your prices. It’s the one we like the most.”

Dopico pleaded guilty to one felony count of restraining trade by conspiring to fix prices, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and admitted that the volume of commerce attributable to him and related to the conspiracy was approximately $8 million.

“Price fixing cheats fishermen, squeezes restaurants, and makes families pay more at the table,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “We will protect honest competition from the boat to the dinner table.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services is investigating this case, while the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal Section is prosecuting the case with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The court will conduct Dopico’s sentencing hearing on January 5, 2026.

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