Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Former auto parts executive sentenced to jail time for bid rigging, (Apr 20, 2016)

By Jeffrey May, J.D.

The first individual to plead guilty in the government’s antitrust investigation of the automotive body sealing products industry was sentenced today to serve 18 months in a U.S. prison and to pay a $20,000 fine. Japanese national Keiji Kyomoto was sentenced in the federal district court in Covington, Kentucky, after pleading guilty to a single-count indictment charging him with bid rigging and price fixing (U.S. v. Kyomoto, Criminal No. 2:15-cr-00044-ART-CJS).

Kyomoto, a former industry executive, was charged along with two other Japanese nationals, Mikio Katsumaru and Yuji Kuroda, last October. Although the government did not identify the defendants' employer at the time of the alleged conspiracy, all three have been linked to Nishikawa Rubber Company, which is based in Hiroshima, Japan. Kyomoto worked in both Japan and at a joint venture partially owned by Nishikawa, with offices in the United States.

Kyomoto admitted to participating in the conspiracy from September 2003 until October 2011. The primary purpose of the conspiracy was to suppress and eliminate competition in the automotive parts industry by agreeing to allocate sales of, to rig bids for, and to fix the prices of automotive body sealing products. Automotive body sealing products consist of body-side opening seals, door-side weather-stripping, glass-run channels, trunk lids, and other smaller seals, according to the government.

The government recommended the sentence handed down by the court. The sentence does not include a period of supervised release or an order of restitution. According to the government, the range of sentences imposed on the 30 individuals who have pleaded guilty for their participation in the automotive parts conspiracies was between a year and a day and 24 months’ imprisonment.

“Today’s plea is yet another example of our commitment to holding senior-level executives accountable for corporate wrongdoing,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Snyder of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, in announcing the sentence. “Whether collusion has affected automobile parts, shipping services, financial products, electronic components or even heir location services, the department has a strong and ever increasing record of prosecuting individuals in order to deter criminal antitrust practices.”

Attorneys: L. Heidi Manschreck for U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Stephen Fishbein (Shearman & Sterling LLP) for Keiji Kyomoto.

News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews