“Where antitrust violations target the U.S. government—and, by extension, the U.S. taxpayer—we will not hesitate to bring civil and criminal charges and seek damages using these tools.”

This was the message from Makan Delrahim, assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, at the annual ABA Antitrust Conference held in Washington, D.C. only a few weeks ago. Now that car parts and auction cartel prosecutions are winding down and the transition to the new Trump Department of Justice and Antitrust Division has finally ended, the DOJ’s Antitrust Division has vowed to continue criminal cartel investigations and prosecutions. Indeed, Richard Powers, the new head of the Antitrust Division’s cartel enforcement section, recently stated that there are 91 grand juries sitting currently examining cartel behavior and the division is now preparing for six criminal trials.