A South Carolina manager of a bovine artificial insemination firm pleaded guilty today to rigging bids for the purchase of cattle used either for the direct production of semen or for the development of animals for future semen production. In advance of cattle auctions, Lutz and his co-conspirators agreed which company would win the bid. Bovine artificial insemination firms produce, market, and sell bovine semen for artificial insemination, research, and genomics. Collusion and bid rigging is criminal, and we will prosecute it to the fullest extent of the law.” Lutz is the first defendant to be charged and to plead guilty in the ongoing investigation into bid rigging in the bovine artificial insemination industry.