Japanese suppliers, execs to pay $548M in price fixing

[DainBramaged]

Source: The Detroit News on-line

Two Japanese auto suppliers and four executives will plead guilty and pay a total of $548 million in criminal fines for their involvement in multiple price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracies, the Justice Department said Monday.

The four executives, all Japanese nationals, have also agreed to plead guilty and to serve prison time in the United States in connection with schemes to keep the price of instrument panel clusters and other parts high.

Yazaki Corp. has agreed to pay a $470 million criminal fine — the second-largest criminal fine obtained for a Sherman Act antitrust violation — and Denso has agreed to pay a $78 million criminal fine.

The four executives from Yazaki — Tsuneaki Hanamura, Ryoji Kawai, Shigeru Ogawa and Hisamitsu Takada — will serve prison time ranging from 15 months to two years.


Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120130/AUTO01/201300399/1361/Japanese-suppliers--execs-to-pay-$548M-in-price-fixing

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Nah, they don't do anything to injure the American auto industry.........scumbags, and the consumer won't see a dime of relief.