Norwegian Auto Shipper Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing
Norwegian ocean carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics AS has agreed to plead guilty to fixing prices and conspiring to rig bids on vehicle shipments to and from the U.S.
#legal
Norwegian ocean carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics AS has agreed to plead guilty to fixing prices and conspiring to rig bids on vehicle shipments to and from the U.S.
The Dept. of Justice says WWL also will pay a $99 million fine. The shipper admits it conspired with others between 2000 and 2012 to manipulate transport rates for the port of Baltimore.
The settlement is the latest in a continuing international probe into price fixing among shippers that began four years ago. A WWL spokesperson tells The Wall Street Journal the company is the target of other continuing investigations.
The Justice Dept. notes it has collected more than $300 million in fines and reached settlements or indicted executives with three other so-called roll-on, roll-off vehicle shippers. They are Chile’s Compania Sudamericana de Vapores and Japan’s Kabushiki Kaisha and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha.
RELATED CONTENT
-
VW Is Storing Nearly 300,000 Repurchased Diesels in U.S.
Volkswagen AG has stashed about 294,000 diesel-powered cars across the U.S. that it bought back from customers after admitting the vehicles were rigged to evade U.S. emission laws.
-
U.S. Justice Dept. Asks VW to Delay Diesel Cheating Report
The U.S. Dept. of Justice has asked Volkswagen AG not to release findings of an independent probe into the German carmaker's diesel emission cheating scandal.
-
Bosch Targeted in Criminal Probe of VW Diesel Cheating in U.S.
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. are trying to determine whether Robert Bosch GmbH conspired to help Volkswagen AB—and perhaps other carmakers—rig their diesel engines to evade emission standards, sources tell Bloomberg News.