neville_nobody
29th Jul 2008, 04:25
I cannot believe that senior people in the Airline industry were so unaware of such a high level of collusion. How could it be so deeply entrenched yet senior management still be ignorant?? Anyway I don't think 6 months is going to make anyone start talking.
Sydney Morning Herald - Business News, World News & Breaking News in Australia (http://www.smh.com.au)
Sick Qantas exec jailed
July 29, 2008 - 11:38AM
Qantas executive Bruce McCaffrey has been sentenced to six months in a US federal prison, although the judge deciding his fate showed the ailing 65-year-old some mercy.
The sentence was two months shorter than expected for McCaffrey's role in a global air cargo price-fixing scam.
He was also fined $US20,000 ($21,000).
The Los Angeles-based veteran, who has spent 26 years with Qantas, suffers from debilitating arthritis in his hands and will need a kidney transplant in the next 12 months. He agreed in May to a plea deal with US prosecutors to serve eight months.
Judge John Bates, in the US District Court in Washington, DC, ruled McCaffrey deserved the lesser sentence as a reward for acting as a key prosecution witness.
US Department of Justice investigators used McCaffrey's inside knowledge to decipher the price-fixing scam involving Qantas, British Airways, KLM, Korean Air Lines, Japan Airlines, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Martinair, SAS and Lufthansa.
Qantas was fined $US69 million by the Justice Department last year and more than $US1 billion in fines are expected to be slapped on the other airlines.
A former executive for Scandinavian-based SAS, Timothy Pfeil, agreed on Monday to plead guilty and serve six months in jail for conspiring to fix air cargo rates.
"Defendant McCaffrey has provided a wealth of information regarding specific meetings and discussions with competitors about surcharges, rates and other competitively sensitive business information," prosecutor Katherine Schlech told the judge.
"The information he provided about those contacts has been corroborated by other witnesses and contemporaneous documents from Qantas files as well as those of its US-based competitors."
McCaffrey, a US citizen, was charged with conspiring to suppress competition while working for Qantas and originally faced a sentence of more than four years' jail.
He was one of Qantas's highest-ranking executives in the US, holding the title of vice-president of freight, the Americas.
Five other senior Qantas executives have been named by the department as co-conspirators, but will most likely avoid punishment because most were based in Australia and live there.
In Australia, competition offences are not considered criminal, so, under the extradition treaty Australia has with the US, McCaffrey's colleagues cannot be extradited to the US.
Members of McCaffrey's family and friends and colleagues, including former Qantas employees, sent letters of support for McCaffrey to Judge Bates before the sentencing.
McCaffrey's family complained he was made a scapegoat by Qantas.
"It saddens me greatly that this man has been used as a scapegoat for the failing of his corporate bosses and is being sacrificed on their behalf," his sister-in-law, Cindy McCaffrey, wrote in her letter to the judge.
McCaffrey will start his jail sentence at a date yet to be scheduled.
Sydney Morning Herald - Business News, World News & Breaking News in Australia (http://www.smh.com.au)
Sick Qantas exec jailed
July 29, 2008 - 11:38AM
Qantas executive Bruce McCaffrey has been sentenced to six months in a US federal prison, although the judge deciding his fate showed the ailing 65-year-old some mercy.
The sentence was two months shorter than expected for McCaffrey's role in a global air cargo price-fixing scam.
He was also fined $US20,000 ($21,000).
The Los Angeles-based veteran, who has spent 26 years with Qantas, suffers from debilitating arthritis in his hands and will need a kidney transplant in the next 12 months. He agreed in May to a plea deal with US prosecutors to serve eight months.
Judge John Bates, in the US District Court in Washington, DC, ruled McCaffrey deserved the lesser sentence as a reward for acting as a key prosecution witness.
US Department of Justice investigators used McCaffrey's inside knowledge to decipher the price-fixing scam involving Qantas, British Airways, KLM, Korean Air Lines, Japan Airlines, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Martinair, SAS and Lufthansa.
Qantas was fined $US69 million by the Justice Department last year and more than $US1 billion in fines are expected to be slapped on the other airlines.
A former executive for Scandinavian-based SAS, Timothy Pfeil, agreed on Monday to plead guilty and serve six months in jail for conspiring to fix air cargo rates.
"Defendant McCaffrey has provided a wealth of information regarding specific meetings and discussions with competitors about surcharges, rates and other competitively sensitive business information," prosecutor Katherine Schlech told the judge.
"The information he provided about those contacts has been corroborated by other witnesses and contemporaneous documents from Qantas files as well as those of its US-based competitors."
McCaffrey, a US citizen, was charged with conspiring to suppress competition while working for Qantas and originally faced a sentence of more than four years' jail.
He was one of Qantas's highest-ranking executives in the US, holding the title of vice-president of freight, the Americas.
Five other senior Qantas executives have been named by the department as co-conspirators, but will most likely avoid punishment because most were based in Australia and live there.
In Australia, competition offences are not considered criminal, so, under the extradition treaty Australia has with the US, McCaffrey's colleagues cannot be extradited to the US.
Members of McCaffrey's family and friends and colleagues, including former Qantas employees, sent letters of support for McCaffrey to Judge Bates before the sentencing.
McCaffrey's family complained he was made a scapegoat by Qantas.
"It saddens me greatly that this man has been used as a scapegoat for the failing of his corporate bosses and is being sacrificed on their behalf," his sister-in-law, Cindy McCaffrey, wrote in her letter to the judge.
McCaffrey will start his jail sentence at a date yet to be scheduled.