A Detroit Federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment against Gikou Nakajima, a former top executive of a Japanese manufacturer Takata for his participation in a price fixing conspiracy of seatbelts, the Department of Justice said today.
Nakajima while at Takata Corp. is charged with participating in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition in the automotive parts industry by agreeing to rig bids for, prices fixing, and / or maintain the prices of, seatbelts sold to Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Company Ltd., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru.
Nakajima served as director of customer relations division at Takata, the highest-level global sales executive at the company, from June 2005 until at least June 2009.
The indictment alleges, among other things, that from at least as early as September 2005 and continuing until June 2009, Nakajima and others attended meetings with co-conspirators and reached collusive agreements to rig bids, allocate the supply of seatbelts sold to the automobile manufacturers. It alleges that Nakajima participated directly in the conspiratorial price fixing conduct, and that he directed, authorized and consented to his subordinates’ participation.
Takata is a Tokyo-based manufacturer of automotive parts, including seatbelts. Takata supplies automotive parts to manufacturers in the United States, in part, through its U.S. subsidiary, TK Holdings Inc., located in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Takata pleaded guilty on Dec. 5, 2013, for its involvement in the conspiracy, and was sentenced to pay criminal fine of $71.3 million. Four other executives from Takata have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to serve time in a U.S. prison and to pay criminal fines for their roles in the conspiracy.
Including Nakajima, 35 individuals have been charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry, 24 of whom have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty. Of those, 22 have been sentenced to serve prison terms ranging from a year and one day to two years. Additionally, 27 companies have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay a total of more than $2.3 billion in fines.
