A federal grand jury in Detroit has indicted a Panasonic Automotive Systems executive for his role in an international conspiracy to fix prices of switches and steering angle sensors sold to Toyota.
The indictment, filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan charges that Shinichi Kotani, a Japanese national, participated in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition in the auto parts industry by agreeing to rig bids for, and to fix the prices of, switches and steering angle sensors sold to Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America. The parts were installed in vehicles manufactured and sold in the United States and elsewhere.
Kotani is the Director of Global Automotive Marketing and Sales at Panasonic. Osaka-based Panasonic pleaded guilty in August 2013 to its role in the conspiracy and was sentenced to pay a $45.8 million criminal fine.
The charges are the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into anti-competitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by each of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI.
The indictment alleges, among other things, that from at least as early as January 2004 until at least February 2010, Kotani and his co-conspirators attended meetings to reach collusive agreements to rig bids, allocate the supply and fix the prices of switches and steering angle
“As a result of the Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation into bid rigging and price fixing in the auto parts industry, 19 executives have been charged,” said Scott D. Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program.
Kotani is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals. The maximum fine 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.
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 is scheduled to be sentenced.
