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More former executives indicted in LCD price fixing cartel

DailyTech has been following the LCD price fixing case pending against executives from three of the largest LCD suppliers in the world. A federal grand jury in San Francisco has returned an indictment against two former executives from Chunghwa Picture Tubes and one former LG Display Co. executive for their participation in the global LCD price fixing scheme.

The indictment was filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco and charges that Cheng Yuan Lin (aka C.Y. Lin), Wen Jun Cheng (aka Tony Cheng), and Duk Mo Koo along with unnamed co-conspirators conspired to reduce and eliminate competition by fixing the prices of TFT-LCD panels.

The three indicted executives each participated in the conspiracy at various times during the conspiracy period that started around September 14, 2001 and lasted until about December 1, 2006. According to the indictment, Lin was part of the conspiracy from September 14, 2001 until April 7, 2003 as Chunghwa's Chairman and CEO. Lin is a resident of Taiwan.

Cheng participated in the conspiracy from October 5, 1002 until September 24, 2004 where for most of that time he was the Assistant VP of Sales and Marketing for Chunghwa. Cheng is also a citizen of Taiwan. Koo was part of the conspiracy from December 11, 2001 until December 5, 2005 and was the Executive VP and Chief Sales Officer for LG. Kong is a citizen of the Republic of Korea.

Scott D. Hammond, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division said in a statement, "The Antitrust Division will vigorously pursue individuals who engage in antitrust crimes targeting U.S. businesses and consumers no matter where those individuals live or commit the crime. Today’s charges should make clear that there are no safe havens for international cartels that violate the U.S. antitrust laws."

Lin, Cheng and Koo are each charged with violations of the Sherman Act, which before June 22, 2004 carried a maximum penalty of three years in prison and $350,000 in fines for each individual. Violations of the Sherman Act after June 22, 2004 carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.

These executives aren’t the first to be indicted in relation to the price fixing cartel. In January, former Chunghwa CEO Chieng-Hon Lin and two other Chunghwa executives were charged and pled guilty. The plea agreements approved by the court have Chieng-Hon Lin serving nine months in prison and paying $50,000 in fines, Chin-Chun Liu spending seven months and paying a $30,000 fine, and Hsueh-Lung Lee serving six months in prison and paying a fine of $20,000. An LG executive named Chang Suk Chung has also pled guilty for his participation and will spend seven months in prison and pay a $25,000 fine.

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Cough, Cough
By Nat495 on 2/4/2009 1:27:19 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
Today’s charges should make clear that there are no safe havens for international cartels that violate the U.S. antitrust laws."


OPEC, cough, cough. As if they aren't an international cartel.




RE: Cough, Cough
By quakeiixbest on 2/4/2009 1:34:22 PM , Rating: 2
I would like to see the United States trying to indict Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers from OPEC...

That will definetly help bringing oil prices down. *rolleyes*


RE: Cough, Cough
By Murloc on 2/4/2009 1:45:35 PM , Rating: 2
that's how it works. Silly. They could at least not say it like if they were the paladins of justice and law.


RE: Cough, Cough
By gudodayn on 2/4/2009 8:27:48 PM , Rating: 2
As Taiwan is not a member of the UN.......
Guess OPEC don't care too much about them.....
BUT!!! Their ex-President is in prison for laundering money .... how much you ask??
About 40 Billion Taiwan Money (divide that by 33 to get USD currency, so a little over 1 Billion USD).

Funny thing is, of the people on trial, some of them told the court that they used to just carry bags of cash by the millions in and out the President's office!!!

Its just an example of how dirty politicians are ....... taking money on the side is in their job desription!!!


RE: Cough, Cough
By SlyNine on 2/4/2009 11:24:44 PM , Rating: 2
Makes me wonder how much of Obamas' proposed stimulus is ever going to make its way to the market to begin with, and that ignores whether or not it'd even help if it was there.


RE: Cough, Cough
By Lerianis on 2/9/2009 3:27:27 PM , Rating: 2
That's a good question. Really, even as an extreme liberal myself, I think that the only way to fix things in the market.... allow some of these banks and other companies to fail or go into bankruptcy and be sold piecemeal to others.

Sure, it will cause unemployment to go up. Sure, it will strain social services. But just handing out good money after bad is not going to fix things and might make things WORSE in the long run.


RE: Cough, Cough
By Ticholo on 2/5/2009 7:56:17 AM , Rating: 2
Bags in and out of the president's office is several notches above "money on the side"! LOL


RE: Cough, Cough
By SlyNine on 2/4/2009 11:18:10 PM , Rating: 2
You mean like Saddam Hussein. Did that, people throw to much of a hissy fit.


RE: Cough, Cough
By dflynchimp on 2/4/2009 2:06:56 PM , Rating: 2
ssshhhhhhhhh!!!
first rule of OPEC, you do not talk about OPEC


RE: Cough, Cough
By BladeVenom on 2/4/2009 2:21:57 PM , Rating: 5
Don't forget the De Beers cartel.


RE: Cough, Cough
By Ticholo on 2/5/2009 8:00:06 AM , Rating: 2
Hey, that one exists for humanitarian reasons.
It employs a lot of people in Africa that would otherwise be starving, jobless and probably enslaved.
And look, shiny things!! HOOOO O_O


RE: Cough, Cough
By Nightraptor on 2/4/2009 2:45:40 PM , Rating: 5
You can't charge the sovereign countries that make up OPEC with price fixing because they control the amount of goods they import and export. Sovereign countries have the right under international law to do this and in fact the United States itself has and continues to do this. Antitrust violations only arise when private individuals or corporations conspire to restrain trade, and even then only if they don't have the permission of the government to do so (for instance the government allows electric companies a monopoly and the ability to fix prices, but tightly regulates them).


Old...
By Judguh on 2/4/2009 2:44:39 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
Cheng participated in the conspiracy from October 5, 1002 until September 24, 2004


Wow... he's pretty old. :)

At least they all got caught!




RE: Old...
By Einy0 on 2/4/09, Rating: 0
RE: Old...
By TheFace on 2/4/2009 5:38:29 PM , Rating: 5
Finally some justice after a thousand years of price fixing those LCD displays.


RE: Old...
By HrilL on 2/4/2009 6:23:47 PM , Rating: 2
I was going to post that too. But then again typos are common on here so I was going to let it slide since they at least had the correct dates for when the price fixing over all started.


RE: Old...
By Ticholo on 2/5/2009 8:02:54 AM , Rating: 2
The tragedy there is that we're still using LCD's after all that time...


Fines paid
By Screwballl on 2/4/2009 2:47:14 PM , Rating: 2
They still got off with making lots of money... they may have to pay around a $1 million between them, but I am sure sure they made some hundreds of millions of dollars personally off the price fixing.




RE: Fines paid
By inperfectdarkness on 2/4/2009 4:14:05 PM , Rating: 2
i'm glad. if you want higher profits...then make something with higher margins.

if LCD makers hadn't been screwing around for the past 10 years...i "MIGHT" be able to buy a 15.4" laptop with wqxga resolution. that's appx. 200 DPI--identical to the I-Phone.

instead, we're still inundated with LCD monitor panels that barely break 100 DPI; and LCD TV's that sometimes have only 50DPI or less.

if the REALLY wanted my money--they'd be offering said wqxga laptops--and i'd happily pay a $1k premium.


By TOAOCyrus on 2/5/2009 12:43:37 AM , Rating: 2
If any of them broke the law then im all for it but sadly much of the problems where caused by them doing what the federal government mandated.


By Regs on 2/5/2009 10:54:07 AM , Rating: 2
Free Market takes on many definitions these days. Lassie fair comes to mind though I haven't seen it in practice for some time now. Too many people at stake to leave alone?

The problem is that people can't get over the fact that if you turn around and give some one a helping hand one too many times, you, yourself can no longer step forward (survival of the fittest). Obviously the helpless need help, but when a federal government starts defining who the helpless is and who is not for their own political gain - we start seeing that magically invisible hand stretch across our free market like a noise waiting to be pulled.


Really?
By Proteusza on 2/5/2009 3:22:32 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Cheng participated in the conspiracy from October 5, 1002 until September 24, 2004


How old is he today? I didnt know we had LCDs back in the year 1002?




RE: Really?
By japlha on 2/5/2009 10:54:35 AM , Rating: 2
LCD price fixing has been a long time problem.
One of the causes of the "Battle of Calatanazor"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Calata%C3%B...


they should
By judasmachine on 2/4/2009 4:27:54 PM , Rating: 2
they should have lobbied a little harder. ;)

hey it works for some.




question
By silverfox00007 on 2/5/2009 12:10:53 AM , Rating: 2
When reading this article, the company Gillette came to mind with there overpriced razors that never seem to drop in price. Would this example also fall under price fixing?




"Google fired a shot heard 'round the world, and now a second American company has answered the call to defend the rights of the Chinese people." -- Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.)



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