| Barnett: hunting down price-fixing |
South Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung has pleaded guilty to price-fixing in a far-reaching probe by the US Department of Justice and has been handed down the second-largest criminal fine ever, after the $500 million Hoffman La Roche paid for vitamin-related price-fixing in 1999. Samsung will pay $300 million to settle the case, in which it was charged with conspiring to fix prices on DRAM chips. The fine will hit Samsung hard. It claims to have set aside just $100 million in 2004 “in provision against possible loss resulting from the ongoing antitrust investigation into the company”. In the third quarter, the group’s semiconductor operating profits were W1.35 trillion ($1.3 billion), down 11.7% on the third quarter of 2004. Samsung cited DRAM chip price weakness for the results.
Furthermore, DoJ representatives have said that several Samsung employees are not protected by the guilty plea, which suggests that further charges might be laid against them. In a similar case against German chipmaker Infineon Technologies, four executives pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and received jail sentence ranging from four to six months for their involvement.