Fujikura is tangled in more than automotive wiring issues.
A federal grand jury in Detroit returned an indictment against two Fujikura Ltd. executives for their roles in an international conspiracy to fix prices of auto parts used in automotive wire harnesses sold to Subaru and installed in U.S. cars.
The indictment, filed yesterday in Detroit, charges Ryoji Fukudome and Toshihiko Nagashima, both Japanese nationals, with participating in a conspiracy to fix prices of automotive wire harnesses sold to Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru brand vehicles.
Fukudome and Nagashima are 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 maximum fine.
Fukudome was employed by Fujikura as general manager of the Automotive Global Marketing Department from April 2001 to April 2006. Nagashima was employed by Fujikura as manager of the Fujikura Wire Harness Center in Ohta, Japan, from July 1994 to April 2006, and as general manager of the Automotive Global Marketing Department from April 2006 to April 2009.
Fujikura is a Tokyo-based manufacturer of automotive wire harnesses. Fujikura pleaded guilty to its role in the conspiracy in June 2012, and sentenced to pay a $20 million criminal fine. (Read Tokyo Based Fujikura Guilty of Auto Parts Price Fixing)
The indictment alleges, among other things, that from at least September 2005 until at least February 2010, Fukudome, Nagashima and their co-conspirators attended meetings in Japan to reach collusive agreements to rig bids and allocate the supply of automotive wire harnesses sold to Subaru. The indictment alleges that Fukudome, Nagashima and their co-conspirators had subsequent communications to monitor and enforce the price fixing agreements.
Including Fukudome and Nagashima, 11 companies and 18 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 prison 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 for sentencing later this month.
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