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NGK Insulators to Plead Guilty to Price Fixing
Japan's NGK Insulators Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty to rigging bids and fixing prices on ceramic substrates for catalytic converters sold to General Motors, Nissan and Toyota.
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Japan's NGK Insulators Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty to rigging bids and fixing prices on ceramic substrates for catalytic converters sold to General Motors, Nissan and Toyota. The company also will pay a $65 million criminal fine.
The U.S. Dept. of Justice says the Nagoya-based company conspired to control pricing between at least 2000 and 2010. The company also admitted it was guilty of obstructing justice by concealing, altering and/or destroying documents in the following two years.
The Justice Dept. also is expected to prosecute three senior executives, including the company's former president, who now serves as an executive corporate advisor to NGK Insulators. They face fines of $1 million each and as many as 10 years in prison.
The criminal convictions are the latest in a continuing international probe involving investigators in the U.S., Europe and Japan. In the U.S., the sweep has so far convicted 36 companies and 30 executives and levied criminal fines of more than $2.5 billion.
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