A former executive of Denso Corp. has agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges during an ongoing Justice Department probe of auto parts price fixing. Kazuaki Fujitani, once a director of Denso in Japan will serve one year and one day in a U.S. prison instead of the maximum price fixing penalty of 20 years in prison and a criminal fine of $250,000 for individuals.
According to the charge, Fujitani, who was general manager of the Toyota Sales Division at the time of the offense, deleted numerous e-mails and electronic documents in February and March 2010 after learning that the FBI had executed a search warrant on Denso’s U.S. subsidiary.
The deleted documents contained communications between Denso and one or more of its competitors regarding requests for price quotation made by Toyota for heater control panels for the Toyota Avalon.
The plea agreement is subject to almost certain approval by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit.
In March 2012, Denso pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $78 million criminal fine for its role in conspiracies to fix the prices of heater control panels and electronic control units.
Including Fujitani, 29 individuals have been charged in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Additionally, 26 companies have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay a total of more than $2.25 billion in fines. (See Bridgestone Latest Japanese Scofflaw as Auto Supplier Price Fixing Scandal Expands Yet Again)
