Promotional products companies involved in an alleged price fixing scandal on items that include silicone wristbands, lanyards and buttons are the subject of lawsuits filed in recent months in a federal court in Texas.

About a half-dozen customers of the purported price fixers are suing for costs, restitution and other unspecified damages in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division.

The plaintiffs want class action status to represent reportedly thousands of other customers who overpaid for the branded items as a result of the price fixing.

Principals of at least two companies named in the lawsuits have already pleaded guilty to federally prosecuted criminal charges tied to fixing prices.

In August last year, California-based Custom Wristbands Inc. and its top executive Christopher Angeles agreed to plead guilty for conspiring to fix prices for customized promotional products sold online in the U.S. The company has done business under names that include Kulayful Silicone Bracelets, Kulayful.com, Speedywristbands.com, Promotionalbands.com, Wristbandcreation.com and 1inchbracelets.com, a lawsuit says.

During the same month, Zaappaaz Inc., which has done business as both a supplier and distributor under names including WB Promotions Inc. (asi/98409/353290), along with its president Azim Makanojiya, opted to plead guilty to conspiring to fix prices for customized promotional products sold online. Makanojiya’s company has also done business as Wrist-band.com and Customlanyard.net.

A lawyer for Kimberly Kjessler, a Portland, OR, resident who is suing Zaappaaz and others, said that the promo companies’ criminal pleas will make it difficult for the firms and their principles to defeat the civil suits. That could lead to settlements. “I don’t think we’re chasing an empty cupboard,” Fred Taylor Isquith, a New York-based attorney, told the Houston Chronicle.

Civil suits in Houston federal court name other promo companies in the alleged price fixing conspiracy, but those firms are not currently facing criminal charges, reports indicate. In July 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation spent about seven hours investigating at the offices of one of the other firms named in a civil suit – Coldwater, OH-based Casad Company, which does business as Totally Promotional. Thomas Casad is founder and president of Casad Company, a court filing states.

Court records say that other companies being sued in connection with alleged price fixing include Netbrands Media Corp. and its president Mashnoon Ahmed, as well as Brandeco LLC and its principal executive Akil Kurji. Both companies are in Texas.

Netbrands has done business under the names 24hourwristbands.com and imprint.com (asi/230822). The company was formerly incorporated in Delaware as Lightbeam Inc., doing business as lightbeamlabs.com, a lawsuit states. Brandeco has done business online under the name BrandNex.com (asi/145204), the suit says. A company named Gennex Media, with ties to Kurji, is also named in suits. ASI records show that Kurji is an executive at supplier-listed PMGOA (asi/79982) of Sugar Land, TX.

Both the Custom Wristbands/Angeles and Makanojiya/Zaappaaz criminal prosecutions were part of what authorities have characterized as an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing in the online promotional products industry, which has been conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section with the assistance of the FBI’s Houston Field Office.

The nature of the investigation suggests the potential for more charges against alleged colluders. In another suggestion that investigations toward more possible charges continue, federal prosecutors have checked in as intervenors in some of the civil suits in Texas.

As part of its guilty plea, Custom Wristbands has agreed to pay a $409,342 criminal fine. Zaappaaz assented to pay a $1,923,245 criminal fine, court records show. From as early as 2014 until June 2016, the conspirators fixed the prices of promotional wristbands and lanyards in violation of the Sherman Act, prosecutors have said. The Houston Chronicle reported that a tip from Victor Rey, owner of Wristband Connection, helped spark the investigation into the illegal activity. Rey reportedly noticed odd pricing patterns in silicone gel wristbands that suggested price fixing. He was later given an opportunity to join the scheme -- something he told the FBI.

In May, a U.S. district judge is scheduled to rule whether or not the various civil cases will be consolidated. ​

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