( July 2, 2012) -- In response to a one-count felony charge filed by the Justice Department, the owner of a southern California-based mesquite charcoal distributor pleaded guilty for participating in a customer allocation and bid-rigging conspiracy. William W. Lord, the owner of Carpinteria, California-based Chef’s Choice Mesquite Charcoal, had conspired with competitors to refrain from competing for each other’s customers and to submit noncompetitive bids for the sale of mesquite charcoal, according to the charge filed by the Justice Department in federal district court in San Francisco....