BANGKOK — Executives of the most popular tuna brands in the U.S. — Chicken of the Sea, Bumble Bee and StarKist — conspired regularly to keep prices high for consumers with a taste for one of America’s favorite sandwich ingredients, according to criminal and civil court records updated this week.

A typical can of tuna today costs about $1.50 and the U.S. Department of Justice says that price may be the result of price fixing by Thai, South Korean and U.S. seafood dealers, while major retailers are suing alleging they’ve been ripped off.

The U.S. government began investigating criminal price fixing between the three companies more than two years ago.

Together the companies supply about 80 percent of the $1.7 billion of canned tuna sold annually in the United States, according to the court records.

Following up, Walmart and other top retailers filed civil lawsuits.

Those cases were updated this week with an appendix first reported by Undercurrent News that singles out dozens of tuna executives, roping in some of the wealthiest businessmen in Thailand, where Chicken of the Sea’s parent company Thai Union is based.

“Thai Union does not comment on ongoing legal matters,” the company said in a statement. The other firms did not respond immediately for requests for comment.