MICHIGAN
A Tokyo-based company plead guilty to price fixing and bid rigging on the market for ceramic substrates used in catalytic converters that are supplied to auto manufacturers, officials announced today.
According to the felony charge filed today in federal court, Corning International K.K. conspired to fix prices and rig bid as early as July 1999 and until July 2011, according to officials.
Including Corning International K.K., officials said 40 companies have been charged in connection with this investigation and have agreed to pay more than $2.6 billion in criminal fines.
In addition, 59 individuals have been charged, including a former executive of Corning International K.K.
On May 11, 2016, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Nobuhiko Niwa, a Japanese national, for his role in the conspiracy. Niwa was charged with participating in the conspiracy from at least as early as July 1999 until on or about July 2011, authorities said.
“Corning International K.K. – and Nobuhiko Niwa, its former executive, who was indicted last week – spent more than a decade colluding on sales of an important component of emissions systems for use in cars made and sold in the United States and elsewhere,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Snyder of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “But they have now been held accountable for the competitive harm they caused.”
The ceramic substrates are supplied to automobile manufacturers including Ford Motor Company, General Motors LLC, Honda Motor Company Ltd., and other suppliers in the United States and elsewhere.
Corning International K.K. agreed to cooperate in the department’s ongoing investigation. The plea agreement will be subject to court approval, according to officials.
“Corning International K.K.’s conspiracy to rig bids and fix prices brought the company increased revenues at a cost to auto manufacturers, suppliers, and ultimately, consumers,” said Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios of the FBI’s Detroit Division. “Attempts to thwart the free market system are damaging to our economy, and thereby its consumers, and will be actively investigated and prosecuted.”
Authorities said there is still an ongoing investigation by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section and the FBI.