Former BA exec faces imprisonment in US
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Posted on: October 6th, 2008 by Taylor Smith
A former executive at BA is facing time in jail in the US after he agreed to plead guilty on price-fixing charges related to an attempt to set air cargo charges globally.
The US Department of Justice announced that Keith Packer, the former commercial general manager for BA World Cargo, would serve an eight-month prison sentence and pay a fine UD$20,000.
Packer, a British national, is the first citizen of a foreign country charged by authorities in the US in an ongoing investigation into price-fixing in the airline industry.
British Airways has been fined for its participation in price-fixing in respect of both passenger fares and air cargo rates, by authorities in the UK and the US. Currently, a number of both former and current BA executives are under investigation by authorities in both the UK and US as well.
Packer is the third executive in the air cargo industry to be imprisoned for price-fixing. Earlier this year, sentences were handed down to a former Qantas executive and an executive from SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
The plea agreement between the Department of Justice and Packer still must be approved by the court. According to the justice department, Packer agreed to co-operate with the ongoing investigation as part of the plea deal.
www.baworldcargo.com
