Takata officials to plead guilty in U.S. price-fixing case -govt
21/11/2013 17:50
WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Three executives of Japan's Takata Corp 7312.T will plead guilty to conspiring to fix the price of seatbelts sold to automakers in the United States and will go to jail for 14 to 19 months, the Justice Department said on Thursday. Takata settled with the Justice Department in October, agreeing to pay $71.3 million to settle antitrust charges. ID:nL4N0I0396 The three executives worked with car makers such as Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T and Subaru, which is owned by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd 7270.T , Honda Motor Co Ltd 7267.T , Mazda Motor Corp 7261.T and Nissan Motor Co Ltd 7201.T , all of which purchased Takata seat belts. One of the three executives, Yasuhiko Ueno, was a past employee of a Takata subsidiary in the United States, TK Holdings Inc, and will serve 19 months in prison, the department said. The other two, Saboro Imamiya and Yoshinobu Fujino, currently work for Takata in Japan. Imamiya will serve 16 months in prison while Fujino will serve 19 months, the department said. The Justice Department and antitrust enforcers worldwide have been probing price fixing of more than 30 car parts, including seatbelts, radiators, windshield wipers, air-conditioning systems, power window motors and power steering components. ID:nL2N0HM176 Other companies which have purchased parts subject to price fixing have been Fiat SpA FIA.MI affiliate Chrysler Group LLC UAWREC.UL , Ford Motor Co F.N , General Motors Co GM.N and Mitsubishi Motors Corp 7211.T . In some cases, the price-fixing lasted for a decade or longer. Parts company executives typically met face to face or talked by phone to reach collusive agreements, the Justice Department has said. Among the auto parts companies that the Antitrust Division has settled with are Autoliv Inc ALV.N , Tokai Rika Co Ltd 6995.T , TRW Deutschland Holding GmbH TRW.N , Nippon Seiki Co Ltd 7287.T , Furukawa Electric Co Ltd 5801.T and Fujikura Ltd 5803.T . (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by John Wallace) ((Diane.Bartz@thomsonreuters.com)(1 202 898 8313)) Keywords: USA JUSTICE/SEATBELTS