Two Denso Corporation executives pled guilty for their roles in international price fixing conspiracies to rig bids for auto parts installed in U.S. made Toyota cars, the Department of Justice announced today. The executives, Yuji Suzuki and Hiroshi Watanabe, both Japanese nationals, have also agreed to serve time in a U.S. prison.
Suzuki and Watanabe are charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals. The plea bargain entered appears to be just that, a bargain for the criminals.
Yuji Suzuki, a senior manager in Denso’s Toyota Sales Division, has agreed to serve 16 months in a U.S. prison, to pay a $20,000 criminal fine and to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation. Hiroshi Watanabe, a group leader in Denso’s Toyota Sales Division at the time of the offense, has agreed to serve 15 months in a U.S. prison, to pay a $20,000 criminal fine and to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation.
“The conspirators reached agreements to fix prices and allocate bids, and took measures such as using code names and meeting in secret to cover their tracks,” said Scott D. Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program. Cracking down on international price-fixing cartels that target U.S. businesses and consumers has been, and will continue to be, among the top priorities for the Antitrust Division.”
According to the two-count felony charge filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Suzuki, along with co-conspirators, engaged in a conspiracy to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of, electronic control units and heater control panels sold to Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America in the United States and elsewhere.
According to the charges, Mr. Suzuki participated in the electronic control units conspiracy from at least as early as August 2005 until at least December 2008 and participated in the heater control panels conspiracy from at least as early as July 2005 until at least December 2008.
According to a one-count felony charge filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Mr. Watanabe participated in a conspiracy to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of, heater control panels sold to Toyota from at least as early as June 2008 and continuing until at least February 2010 in the United States and elsewhere.
In March 2012, Denso pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $78 million criminal fine for its role in the conspiracies related to electronic control units and heater control panels. According to the charges against Suzuki and Watanabe, they carried out the conspiracies by participating, or directing the participation of subordinate employees, in meetings and conversations to coordinate and fix prices of automotive parts installed in U.S. cars and elsewhere.
To date, nine companies and 14 executives have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the automotive parts industry. Denso, Nippon Seiki Ltd., Tokai Rika Co. Ltd., Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd, Yazaki Corp., G.S. Electech Inc., Fujikura Ltd., Autoliv Inc. and TRW Deutschland Holding GmbH pleaded guilty and were sentenced to pay a total of more than $809 million in criminal fines. Twelve individuals have been sentenced to pay criminal fines and to serve jail sentences ranging from a year and a day to two years each.
The charges are the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by each of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI.
The Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section and the FBI’s Detroit Field Office brought today’s charges, with the assistance of the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit. Anyone with information on price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct related to other products in the automotive parts industry should contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html or call the FBI’s Detroit Field Office at 313-965-2323.
