A federal grand jury in Kentucky indicted Shingo Okuda of G.S. Electech his role in an international conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids of auto parts used on antilock brake systems installed in U.S. cars.
The criminal charge was the first to be filed in Kentucky where Toyota has extensive operations as part of an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into anti-competitive conduct in the automotive parts industry.
Okuda, a Japanese national, is charged with participating in a conspiracy to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize, and maintain the prices of speed-sensor wire assemblies installed in automobiles with an antilock brake system (ABS), sold to Toyota Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America in the United States and elsewhere.
G.S. Electech manufactures, assembles and sells a variety of automotive electrical parts, including speed sensor wire assemblies. The speed sensor wire assemblies connect a sensor on each wheel to the ABS to instruct it when to engage. In May 2012, G.S. Electech pleaded guilty and was assessed a $2.75 million criminal fine for its role in the conspiracy.
According to the charge, Okuda and his co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by, among other things, agreeing during meetings and discussions to coordinate bids and fix prices of automotive parts submitted to Toyota. According to the charge, Okuda’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as January 2003 until at least February 2010.
“Today’s indictment marks the 16th executive to be charged in the Antitrust Division’s continuing investigation of price fixing in the auto parts industry,” said Scott D. Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program. “Holding buy valium usa individuals accountable for their actions is the surest way to deter executives from choosing to collude rather than to compete for business.”
Okuda is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum sentence for individuals of 10 years in prison and a criminal fine of $1 million. The maximum fine for an individual may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
Including Okuda, 11 companies and 16 executives have been charged in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into the automotive parts industry. To date, more than $874 million in criminal fines have been imposed and 14 individuals have been sentenced to pay criminal fines and to serve jail sentences ranging from a year and a day to two years each. One other executive has agreed to serve time in prison and will be sentenced on 25 September 2013.
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