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U.S. Fines Japanese Supplier $130 Million in Price-Fixing Probe
Japan’s Nishikawa Rubber Co. has agreed to plead guilty of conspiring to fix prices on auto body sealing products sold in North America to Honda, Subaru and Toyota.
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Japan’s Nishikawa Rubber Co. has agreed to plead guilty of conspiring to fix prices on auto body sealing products sold in North America to Honda, Subaru and Toyota. The company will pay an unusually large $130 million fine.
The U.S. Dept. of Justice says the Hiroshima-based supplier rigged bids and manipulated prices on weatherstrip and door seal products between at least 2000 and 2012. The department coordinated its investigation with the Competition Bureau of Canada.
Earlier this year a former Nishikawa sales executive Keiji Kyomoto pleaded guilty to fixing prices and rigging bids after being indicted by a federal grand jury in Kentucky. He was fined $20,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The U.S. investigation is part of a continuing worldwide probe into bid rigging and price fixing among auto suppliers. The U.S. portion of the campaign has so far charged 45 companies and 64 executives and levied more than $2.8 billion in criminal fines.
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