[mdnahas]

Economist and former trader here. I did a quick skim and this market is badly structured. According to Claude, the method use to compute the prices for large sales is based on experts who use the activity on a small spot market, the details of some larger off market transactions that they find out about, and don’t publish their method. The wholesaler buyers using that price for their large contracts are … stupid. I’m not surprised that egg producers placed lots of non-trading bid - it is a common manipulation in markets. I’m shocked that wholesaler buyers accepted a system where it could have a large effect.

I would expect a small settlement because it is hard to compute the fraud’s effect on prices. The “experts” at Urner Barry who set the price don’t publish their method. Thus, prosecutors would have to be conservative about what they could prove in court.