“The division will continue to work with its law enforcement partners in the ongoing investigation in the auto parts industry.”
Norihiro Imai, a Japanese national and an executive of Japan-based DENSO Corporation, has agreed to plead guilty and to serve time in prison for his role in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for heater control panels installed in U.S.-built cars, the Department of Justice announced today. The companies victimized were not specified.
The plea agreement, subject to court approval, requires Imai serve one year and one day in a U.S. prison, to pay a $20,000 criminal fine and to cooperate with the Department’s ongoing investigation. Imai is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which normally carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1 million or greater criminal fine for individuals.
According to a one-count felony charge filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Imai, along with co-conspirators, engaged in a conspiracy to rig bids for and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of panels sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. According to the charge, Imai’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as August 2006 until at least June 2009.
DENSO, a major international automotive supplier with close ties to major Japanese automakers, designs, builds and sells a variety of automotive electrical parts. Imai and his co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by, among other things, agreeing during meetings and discussions to coordinate bids submitted to, and price adjustments requested by, automobile manufacturers.
Including Imai, eight individuals and three companies have now been charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. DENSO pleaded guilty earlier this month, and was sentenced to pay a $78 million criminal fine. Yazaki Corporation, another Japanese automotive electrical component supplier, also pleaded in March, and was sentenced to pay a $470 million criminal fine
Four Yazaki executives were charged on Jan. 30, 2012, and have agreed to plead guilty. Last November, Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $200 million fine. Three of Furukawa’s executives also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to serve prison sentences in the United States ranging from a year and a day to 18 months.
See:
- Japanese Suppliers Yazaki, Denso Plead Guilty of Price Fixing
- Chairman of Taiwan Auto Light Maker Guilty of Price Fixing
