The Department of Justice Sept. 26 slapped nine Japan-based companies and two executives with $740 million in criminal fines for their roles in separate conspiracies to fix the prices of more than 30 different products sold to U.S. car makers.

According to the Justice Department, price-fixed automobile parts were sold to Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, as well as to the U.S. subsidiaries of Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota and Subaru.

“These international price-fixing conspiracies affected more than $5 billion in automobile parts sold to U.S. car manufacturers,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in announcing the enforcement action. “The Department of Justice will continue to crack down on cartel behavior that causes American consumers and businesses to pay higher prices for the products and services they rely upon in their everyday lives.”

Some of the price-fixing conspiracies lasted more than a decade. “The Antitrust Division has worked hand-in-hand with its international competition colleagues who have provided invaluable assistance to the Justice Department in breaking up these worldwide price-fixing cartels,” said Scott Hammond, deputy assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division's criminal enforcement program.

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The Antitrust Division also charged 20 companies and 21 executives stemming from its ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry.  All 20 companies have either pleaded guilty or have agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay more than $1.6 billion in criminal fines. 

Seventeen of the 21 executives have been sentenced to serve time in prison or have entered into plea agreements, which are subject to court approval, calling for significant prison sentences. Each of the companies and executives charged has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's ongoing antitrust investigation. 

The criminal fines and sentences that the companies and executives have agreed upon are as follows:

Hitachi Automotive Systems to pay $195 million;

Jtekt Corporation to pay $103.27 million;

Mitsuba Corporation to pay $135 million;

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) to pay $190 million;

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay $14.5 million;

NSK Ltd. to pay $68.2 million;

T.RAD to pay $13.75 million;

Valeo Japan Co. to pay $13.6 million; and

Yamashita Rubber to pay a $11 million.

In addition, Tetsuya Kunida, a Japanese citizen and former executive of a U.S. subsidiary of a Japan-based automotive anti-vibration rubber products supplier to serve 12 months and one day in a U.S. prison and pay a $20,000 criminal fine. Gary Walker, a U.S. former executive of a U.S. subsidiary of a Japan-based automotive products supplier, will serve 14 months in a U.S. prison and pay a $20,000 criminal fine.

Generally, the companies, executives and co-conspirators engaged in the various price-fixing schemes by attending meetings and communicating by telephone in the United States and Japan to reach collusive agreements to rig bids, set prices and allocate the supply of auto parts sold to the car manufacturers,” according to the Justice Department. “They took measures to keep their conduct secret by using code names and meeting in remote locations.  Those charged also had further communications to monitor and enforce the collusive agreements.”

The multiple conspiracies also harmed U.S. automobile plants in 14 states: Alabama; California; Georgia; Illinois; Indiana; Kansas; Kentucky; Michigan; Mississippi; Missouri; Ohio; Tennessee; Texas and Wisconsin, the Justice Department said.

The Justice Department coordinated its investigation with the Japanese Fair Trade Commission; the European Commission; Canadian Competition Bureau; Korean Fair Trade Commission; Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission; and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.