Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Japanese auto exec indicted in U.S. cartel investigation, (Jan 22, 2015)
Organizations Mentioned:Takata Corp. | U.S. Department of Justice
By Jeffrey May, J.D.
Takata Corporation executive Hiromu Usuda was charged today in the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's auto parts cartel probe. A federal grand jury in Detroit has returned a one-count indictment against Usuda for his participation in a conspiracy to fix prices of seatbelts (U.S. v. Usuda, Criminal No. 2:15-cr-20029).
Between the start of 2005 and continuing through February 2011, Usuda allegedly conspired to rig bids, allocate the supply, and fix the prices of seatbelts sold to automobile manufacturers. The government charged the defendant with participating directly in the conspiratorial conduct and directing, authorizing, and consenting to his subordinates’ participation.
Takata is a Japanese manufacturer of automotive occupant safety systems, including seatbelts. The company and four company executives have already pleaded guilty for their involvement in the conspiracy. Takata was sentenced to pay criminal fine of $71.3 million in December 2013. Three Takata executives—Yasuhiko Ueno, Saburo Imamiya, and Yoshinobu Fujino—and an executive of U.S. subsidiary TK Holdings Inc., Gary Walker, were sentenced to prison time. Each of these individual defendants also was fined $20,000. In addition, Gikou Nakajima, a former executive at Takata, was indicted in 2014 for his role in the conspiracy.
According to the Justice Department, to date, 50 individuals have been charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Additionally, 32 companies have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay a total of more than $2.4 billion in fines.
Companies: Takata Corp.
News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews