In 1999 the firm plead guilty to participation in a worldwide conspiracy to raise and fix prices for vitamins sold in the USA and globally. Hoffmann-La Roche paid $500 million in criminal fines[28] to the United States. Stanley Adams, Roche's World Product Manager in Basel, contacted the European Economic Community in 1973 with evidence that Roche had been breaking antitrust laws, engaging in price fixing and market sharing for vitamins with its competitors. Roche was fined accordingly, but a bungle on the part of the EEC allowed the company to discover that it was Adams who had blown the whistle. He was arrested for unauthorised disclosure — an offence under Swiss law — and imprisoned. His wife, having learnt that he might face decades in jail, committed suicide.[29] Roche was fined a second time for vitamin price fixing in 1999, eventually paying a $500M fine.[29]