Diogenes’ search for an honest man would be futile in Japan if the latest, but by no means the last, price fixing scandal is indicative of Asian scorn for western laws. In a two-count felony plea bargain revealed today in Ohio, Osaka, Japan-based Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. pleaded guilty and will pay a $120 million criminal fine for its role in two separate price fixing conspiracies concerning anti-vibration rubber and driveshaft parts installed in cars sold in the United States. According to the Department of Justice, rubber parts sold to Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Corp., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., aka Subaru, were involved in price fixing from as early as March 1996 until at least May 2012. This is 18 years of blatant criminal behavior from Japanese scofflaws.
Including Toyo, 22 companies and 26 executives have been charged in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into the automotive parts industry. More than 25 million vehicles have been affected by higher prices. All 22 companies have either pleaded guilty or have agreed to plead guilty and will pay more than $1.8 billion in criminal fines. Of the 26 executives, 20 have been sentenced to serve time in U.S. prisons or have entered into plea agreements calling for prison sentences. (Japanese Price Fixing Scandal Expands with Two More Indictments and Prison Sentences for Three Takata Executives and Nine Japanese Auto Parts Firms Guilty of Price Fixing)
In addition, according to the charge, Toyo engaged in a separate conspiracy to allocate sales of, and to fix prices of automotive constant-velocity-joint boots it sold to U.S. subsidiaries of GKN plc, a British automotive parts supplier. According to this charge, Toyo and its co-conspirators carried out the constant-velocity-joint conspiracy from as early as January 2006 until as late as September 2010.
Toyo, which has subsidiaries based in Franklin, Ky., and White, Ga., has agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation. The plea agreement is subject to almost certain court approval.
