US: Feds charge promo company & its top exec for price fixing

Federal authorities are intensifying a crackdown on price fixing in the online promotional products market, a fact evidenced by another bust of an admitted schemer.

On Tuesday August 22, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Custom Wristbands and its top executive Christopher Angeles agreed to plead guilty for conspiring to fix prices for customized promotional products sold online in the United States.

According to authorities, Custom Wristbands’ did business under names that included Kulayful Silicone Bracelets, Kulayful.com, Speedywristbands.com, Promotionalbands.com, Wristbandcreation.com and 1inchbracelets.com. Custom Wristbands is not an Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI)-listed company. Promotionalbands.com had been an ASI-listed as a supplier, but was delisted prior to the guilty plea announcement.

Angeles’ guilty plea follows fast on the heels of another guilt admission from a promotional product executive and his business, which also specialized in branded wristbands. In early August, Zaappaaz, which has done business as both a supplier and distributor under names including WB Promotions, along with its president Azim Makanojiya, opted to plead guilty to conspiring to fix prices for customized promotional products sold online.

Both the Custom Wristbands/Angeles and Makanojiya/Zaappaaz prosecutions are part of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing in the online promotional products industry, which is being conducted by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section with the assistance of the FBI’s Houston Field Office.

Full Content: Department of Justice

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