Antitrust Investigations

Defending companies and executives in DOJ, FTC, state attorney general, and international competition investigations — civil and criminal.

Antitrust investigations rarely announce themselves politely. They begin with a grand jury subpoena on your general counsel's desk, a civil investigative demand (CID) from the DOJ or FTC, a target letter, federal agents dropping in on an employee at home, or a search warrant executed at your offices. What you do in the first days or even hours — from escorting the agents and cataloging what they take, to who you talk to, to what you say to the government — shapes everything that follows.

Bona Law is an antitrust and competition boutique. We defend companies and individuals in civil and criminal investigations brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general, and competition enforcers in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Europe, and Asia through our international competition practice. Our team includes former DOJ Antitrust Division lawyers and a former senior state antitrust enforcer — attorneys who have sat on the government's side of these investigations. Because we are a boutique, your matter is handled by senior antitrust lawyers without the conflicts that often complicate BigLaw engagements. We serve as lead counsel for companies, as independent counsel for executives and employees who need separate representation, and as co-counsel bringing antitrust expertise to criminal defense teams.

Investigations rarely stay in one lane. A criminal investigation triggers the class-action "antitrust blizzard" that our antitrust litigation and class action defense teams defend; a merger review can spawn a conduct investigation that our mergers and acquisitions practice sees coming; a conviction becomes an appeal our appellate litigation team argues; and the best outcome of all — never becoming a target — is the work of our antitrust counseling and compliance practice.


If Any of These Just Happened, Call Us

  • You received a grand jury subpoena from the DOJ Antitrust Division.
  • You received a civil investigative demand (CID) from the DOJ, the FTC, or a state attorney general.
  • You or an executive received a target or subject letter.
  • Federal agents executed a search warrant — or showed up at the office or at an employee's home.
  • A competitor, customer, or former employee reported your company, or an internal complaint or auditor inquiry raised antitrust concerns.
  • Your company is weighing whether to self-report and seek leniency.
  • Your merger review is turning into a conduct investigation, or you received a Second Request.

Before you respond to anything — or delete anything — preserve your documents, including ephemeral messaging, and talk to counsel. See Did You Receive an FTC or DOJ Subpoena? Be Sure to Preserve Everything Ephemeral.


Your Antitrust Investigations Team

Web team: add photos and format to match the Agriculture and Food team section.

  • Jon Cieslak (Partner, San Diego). White-collar criminal defense and internal investigations. Has defended companies and C-level executives in DOJ price-fixing and bid-rigging prosecutions and no-poach investigations, FCPA and money-laundering matters, and whistleblower-driven inquiries. Author of the firm's core writing on CIDs, leniency, and separate counsel for executives.
  • Jim Lerner (Partner / Director of Litigation, New York). Twenty-five years defending high-profile international criminal and civil cartel investigations — vitamins, auto parts, consumer electronics, food and feed additives — across the U.S., EU, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, and Korea.
  • Pat Pascarella (Partner, Dallas). DOJ Antitrust Division alum and former Chief Antitrust Counsel at AT&T who has handled countless federal, state, and international investigations from both sides of the table. While at DOJ, he opened and led multiple investigations, including the investigation of the NASDAQ market makers. In the private sector he convinced the Mexican competition authority to revoke a $1 billion fine levied against América Móvil's Telcel for alleged abuse of dominance, and got a federal agency to close an investigation in which the potential fine exceeded the Fortune 100 client's net worth. 
  • Paul Moore (Partner, San Diego). Former DOJ Antitrust Division trial attorney and former senior California Deputy Attorney General — he has run these investigations from the government's side, including the State's Vitol prosecution and the eBay no-poach and CRT/LCD/DRAM matters.
  • Steven Cernak (Partner, Detroit). Twenty years as in-house antitrust counsel at General Motors; decades of DOJ and FTC investigation and Second Request experience, including coordinated multi-agency defense of a billion-dollar conspiracy matter. Immediate Past Chair of the ABA Antitrust Law Section.
  • Kristen Harris (Of Counsel, San Diego). Civil and criminal investigations before the DOJ, FTC, and foreign agencies; former FTC Bureau of Competition clerk; outside trial counsel to the California Attorney General in the Vitol prosecution.
  • Luis Blanquez (Partner, San Diego). Fifteen years in EU competition practice, including the European Commission's DG-Competition Merger Task Force; EU cartel investigations and DOJ, FTC, and state investigations; author on DPAs and compliance programs and bid rigging in construction.


Representative Experience

Investigation defense succeeds most when no one ever hears about it. Matters we can describe include:

  • DOJ Criminal Price-Fixing Investigation — Medical Supplies (N.D. Ill.). Defended a company in connection with a DOJ Antitrust Division grand jury subpoena investigating potential price fixing of medical supplies. After producing documents in response to the subpoena, we persuaded the Antitrust Division not to seek an indictment — a successful pre-indictment resolution of a criminal antitrust investigation.
  • Criminal No-Poach Leniency Cooperation (D. Nev.). Represented an individual implicated in a federal criminal antitrust investigation arising from an alleged no-poaching agreement among healthcare staffing companies, guiding the client through cooperation related to a former employer's leniency petition to the DOJ Antitrust Division — work at the intersection of criminal defense, individual Sherman Act exposure, and corporate leniency procedure.
  • Criminal Bid-Rigging Indictment Defense (D. Minn.). Defended an individual charged with bid rigging in federal government auctions, seeking dismissal of the indictment through challenges to the government's charging theory and the application of per se Sherman Act principles.
  • DOJ Criminal Bid-Rigging Investigation — Municipal Water and Sewer Systems. Defended a construction materials sales representative in a U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division criminal bid-rigging investigation relating to the procurement of municipal water and sewer system projects.
  • United States v. Guillory (9th Cir.). Appealed a criminal bid-rigging conviction arising from the DOJ's highly publicized investigation of real-estate foreclosure auctions in the San Francisco Bay Area, arguing that misleading government statements and flawed jury instructions produced a conviction based on lawful conduct. Read the announcement.
  • Third-Party Subpoena Defense — State AG Price-Fixing Investigation. Defended a third-party subpoena recipient in a state attorney general antitrust action alleging price fixing of apartment rents, negotiating scope and burden and managing the client's obligations as a non-party.
  • DOJ and FTC Investigations Across Industries. Represented corporate clients in DOJ Antitrust Division and FTC investigations across multiple industries, including CID and Second Request responses, witness preparation, and negotiation with agency staff and front office.
  • People v. Vitol Inc., et al. (S.F. Superior Court). Served as outside trial counsel for the California Attorney General's Office in a state antitrust action against global gasoline trading firms alleging manipulation of California gasoline price indices — resolved in a $50 million settlement. Read the announcement.
  • SEC Enforcement Defense. Defense of individuals and companies in SEC enforcement matters, including a pending Ninth Circuit appeal of a $3.5 million enforcement judgment (SEC v. Casey) and defense of an estate in an SEC unregistered-securities action (SEC v. TKO Farms).

Before joining Bona Law, our attorneys also defended many of the most significant criminal and civil investigations of the past two decades — including multiple DOJ Antitrust Division investigations of international consumer-electronics and automotive-parts manufacturers closed without charges, a DOJ no-poach investigation of a Fortune 500 company closed without charges, criminal price-fixing and bid-rigging charges against a major electronics manufacturer's CEO, an FTC conduct investigation resolved with no action, international cartel investigations across the U.S., EU, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, and Korea, and the reversal of a $1 billion Mexican competition fine.


What We Do

  • Rapid response. Immediate counsel on preservation obligations, employee communications, and first contact with enforcers — the decisions that determine whether an investigation stays civil, closes quietly, or becomes an indictment.
  • Subpoena and CID defense. Negotiating scope, managing production, protecting privilege, and reading what the government's requests reveal about where the investigation is headed. See DOJ Civil Investigative Demands and Hidden Risks.
  • Internal investigations. Confidential, privileged internal investigations in response to government inquiries, auditor questions, and whistleblower complaints — across U.S. and foreign jurisdictions.
  • Leniency and self-disclosure strategy. Advising on the DOJ leniency program, ACPERA's civil-damages protections, and voluntary self-disclosure — including whether to apply at all, a decision with enormous consequences now that the DOJ pays whistleblowers.
  • Defense of executives and employees. Serving as independent counsel when individuals need their own lawyer — target versus witness status, joint defense agreements, proffers, and plea negotiations.
  • Advocacy before the agencies. Persuading the DOJ, FTC, and state AGs to close investigations without charges — as we have done — and dealing effectively with government enforcers at every stage, through trial and appeal when necessary.
  • Follow-on civil litigation. Defending the class actions and competitor suits that almost always follow a public investigation — the antitrust blizzard.
  • Offense. When a client's interests are served by government enforcement against someone else, we know how to educate the DOJ, FTC, and state attorneys general about ongoing or incipient antitrust violations — and in People v. Vitol, the California Attorney General retained Bona Law as outside trial counsel to prosecute a state antitrust action.


Criminal Antitrust Defense

Criminal antitrust is different. Sherman Act violations are felonies: corporations face fines of up to $100 million — and higher under the alternative fines statute, which can reach twice the gain or loss from the offense — while individuals face fines up to $1 million and up to ten years in prison. The DOJ Antitrust Division prosecutes price fixing, bid rigging, and market and customer allocation as per se offenses — no defense based on reasonableness or good intentions — and it has shown it will criminally charge monopolization conduct as well.

The enforcement machinery keeps expanding. The Procurement Collusion Strike Force targets bid rigging on government contracts across dozens of judicial districts. The Division treats naked no-poach and wage-fixing agreements as criminal and has won its first jury conviction. Whistleblowers now have statutory protections. Enforcement is concentrating in the industries we know best, including healthcare and medical devices, agriculture and food, and energy and commodities. And a criminal resolution is rarely the end: deferred prosecution agreements demand effective compliance programs, and treble-damages civil litigation follows. In this environment, the leniency race can start without you knowing — which is why the earliest hours of a criminal antitrust matter are the most important. For enforcement trends, see DOJ Antitrust Division 2025: The Cop Is Still on the Beat.

Our criminal antitrust work also extends to related white-collar matters — securities enforcement, fraud, and money laundering — where our commercial litigation and antitrust experience combine.


Recent Developments

Criminal antitrust enforcement is accelerating in 2026. The DOJ Antitrust Division's leadership has emphasized more prosecutions, individual accountability, and longer sentences. The Division's antitrust whistleblower rewards program has produced its first charges and first payout — meaning employees now have a financial incentive to report their employers. The Procurement Collusion Strike Force continues to generate bid-rigging prosecutions against government contractors. Labor-market enforcement produced its first criminal wage-fixing conviction at trial — a healthcare staffing executive received a 40-month prison sentence in late 2025 on wage-fixing and related fraud counts — and the FTC's Joint Labor Task Force is prioritizing no-poach and wage-fixing investigations. Algorithmic pricing, healthcare (where the FTC launched a cross-bureau Healthcare Task Force in March 2026), and the food supply chain are priority sectors. For ongoing analysis, see the blog's Criminal Antitrust Issues category and industry-focused pieces like Homebuilders in the Crosshairs.


Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a grand jury subpoena and a civil investigative demand?

A grand jury subpoena means a criminal investigation; a CID is a civil investigative tool used by the DOJ, FTC, and state AGs. But the line moves: civil investigations can turn criminal, and how you respond to a CID can affect whether that happens. Treat both with the same seriousness.


I received a subpoena but I'm probably just a witness. Do I still need a lawyer?

Yes. Witness, subject, and target are positions on a spectrum, and people move along it — sometimes because of how they responded early. Counsel can often learn your status from the government and keep you where you are.


Do my executives need their own lawyers?

Often, yes. Company counsel represents the company. When an individual's interests may diverge — target status, potential cooperation, plea exposure — the individual needs independent counsel. We regularly serve in both roles (in different matters) and can help you make the call early.


Should we self-report and seek leniency?

Sometimes it is the best decision a company can make; sometimes it is a serious mistake. The DOJ leniency program offers the first company in the door protection from criminal conviction, and ACPERA reduces civil damages exposure — but the calculus has changed now that the DOJ pays whistleblowers, and the race can start without you knowing. This decision deserves experienced counsel immediately.


What are the penalties in a criminal antitrust case?

Sherman Act violations are felonies. Companies face fines of up to $100 million (and higher under the alternative fines statute); individuals face up to ten years in prison. The follow-on civil litigation — with treble damages — typically costs more than the government case itself.


The investigation is in another country. Can you help?

Yes. Our attorneys have represented clients in competition investigations in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Europe, and Asia, and we coordinate multi-jurisdiction defense through our international competition practice, including with local counsel.


Why Bona Law for Antitrust Investigations

  • Former enforcers. Our team includes DOJ Antitrust Division alumni and a former senior California Deputy Attorney General — and a state attorney general retained Bona Law as outside trial counsel in a major antitrust prosecution.
  • A boutique with BigLaw bench. Our attorneys trained at Gibson Dunn, DLA Piper, Winston & Strawn, Weil Gotshal, White & Case, and Cooley, served as Chief Antitrust Counsel at AT&T and in-house at General Motors for twenty years, and served at the European Commission's DG-Competition Merger Task Force.
  • Conflict-free and collaborative. We are free of the client conflicts that complicate BigLaw investigation defense, and through our Antitrust Co-Counsel service we integrate into existing criminal defense teams that need antitrust expertise.
  • Industry depth where enforcement is hottest. Our healthcare, pharmaceutical, and medical device, agriculture and food, energy and commodities trading, telecommunications and platforms, and blockchain industry practices track the sectors enforcers are targeting now.
  • Thought leadership enforcers and in-house counsel actually read. The Antitrust Attorney Blog's criminal antitrust, DOJ, and FTC coverage has answered prospective clients' investigation questions for more than a decade.

Resources

A selection of Bona Law's writing on government investigations and criminal antitrust:

For the complete archive, see The Antitrust Attorney Blog's Criminal Antitrust Issues category →


Contact Us

If you or your company has received a subpoena, CID, or target letter — or you suspect an investigation is coming — contact Bona Law for an initial discussion. Bona Law defends companies and executives in antitrust and white-collar investigations worldwide, and works alongside our antitrust litigation, counseling and compliance, and appellate practices at every stage.


Related practices:

Antitrust Litigation · Antitrust Class Actions · Antitrust Counseling and Compliance · State Attorney General Antitrust · Mergers & Acquisitions · Appellate Litigation · General Commercial Litigation · Challenges to Anticompetitive and Unlawful Government Action · Investigations


Related industries:

Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Device Antitrust · Agriculture and Food · Energy and Commodities Trading · Telecommunications and Platforms · Blockchain and Bitcoin · Industry-Specific & International Experience

Practice Areas

Antitrust Counseling and Compliance Challenges to Anticompetitive and Unlawful Government Action Antitrust Investigations Lanham Act and False Advertising Antitrust Class Actions Antitrust Litigation Appellate Litigation Complex Commercial Litigation Mergers & Acquisitions Regulatory & Political Advocacy State Attorney General Antitrust Monopolization and Exclusionary Conduct Agriculture and Food Blockchain and Bitcoin Construction and Building Materials Energy and Commodities Trading Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Device Antitrust Industry-Specific & International Experience Real Estate and Housing Telecommunications and Platforms