Two Japanese suppliers of automotive electrical components -Yazaki and Denso -have agreed to plead guilty and to pay a total of US$548m in criminal fines for their involvement in multiple price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracies in the sale of parts to automobile manufacturers in the US, the Department of Justice has announced.
Four executives, all Japanese nationals, have also agreed to plead guilty and to serve prison time in the US.
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Yazaki has agreed to pay a US$470m criminal fine – the second largest criminal fine obtained for a Sherman Act antitrust violation – and Denso has agreed to pay a US$78m 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.
The two-year sentences would be the longest term of imprisonment imposed on a foreign national voluntarily submitting to US jurisdiction for a Sherman Act antitrust violation. The fine amount and prison sentences are subject to court approval.
“As a result of the Antitrust Division’s ongoing criminal investigation of price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry, more than US$748m in fines have been obtained – which already surpasses the total amount in criminal fines obtained by the division for all of last fiscal year,” said Sharis Pozen, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
“Criminal antitrust enforcement remains a top priority and the Antitrust Division will continue to work with the FBI and our law enforcement counterparts to root out this kind of pernicious cartel conduct that results in higher prices to American consumers and businesses.”
FBI special agent in charge Andrew Arena noted: “I would like to commend the employees of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. This team has devoted countless hours to the investigation. The companies involved in this case conspired to the price fixing and bid rigging of automotive parts.
“This criminal activity has a significant impact on the automotive manufacturers in the US, Canada, Japan and Europe and had been occurring at least a decade. The conduct had also affected commerce on a global scale in almost every market where automobiles are manufactured and/or sold.”
Further details of the case are available here and more information is expected later.
