Tyson Foods will pay $10.5 million to settle allegations by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson that it conspired with other poultry companies to inflate chicken prices.

The Arkansas-based company, the country’s largest poultry producer, denied any wrongdoing, but settled to avoid the cost and distraction of fighting the claims, according to a court order.

“While Tyson does not admit any liability as part of the settlement, it believes that the settlement was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders in order to avoid the uncertainty, expense and burden of protracted litigation,” Tyson spokesman Derek Burleson said in an email Monday.

Ferguson sued Tyson and 18 other poultry companies in 2021. The defendants shared inside information, limited production and rigged bids, the suit alleges.

Two other companies, Mar-Jac Poultry and Fieldale Farms Corp., had previously settled. The suit against the other defendants remains pending in King County Superior Court.

As part of its settlement, Tyson will provide the state attorney general’s office with documents and make executives available for questioning.

Highly paid executives cheated “hardworking Washington families in order to satisfy their greed,” Ferguson said in a press release Monday.

“We will do everything in our power to make Washingtonians whole for the harm done to them by this price-rigging conspiracy,” he said.

Mar-Jac Poultry paid a $725,000 settlement in May and Fieldale Farms Corp. paid $475,000 to settle in August. Both companies are based in Georgia.

The attorney general’s office has now negotiated settlements totaling $11.7 million.

Some of the money will cover the state’s legal costs. A program will be set up to compensate Washington chicken consumers with funds left over, according to the attorney general.

The poultry industry has been hit with numerous federal and state lawsuits alleging price-rigging. Tyson agreed to pay $221.5 million last year to settle federal suits filed in Illinois.

A federal jury in Denver in July acquitted five chicken-company executives from Pilgrim’s Pride and Claxton Poultry of price-fixing.

The remaining defendants are the statistical service Agri Stats and poultry producers Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue Farms, Koch Foods, Sanderson Farms, Foster Farms; Mountaire Farms, Wayne Farms, Amick Farms, George’s, Peco Foods; House of Raeford Farms, Case Foods, Claxton Poultry Farms, Simmons Foods, O.K. Foods and Harrison Poultry.