March 2, 2006 4 to Plead Guilty on Chip Pricing By LAURIE J. FLYNN NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/technology/02hynix.html?pagewanted=print SAN FRANCISCO, March 1 Four executives of Hynix Semiconductor, a South Korean supplier of memory chips, have agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time in the United States for their roles in a price-fixing conspiracy, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. The guilty pleas are the latest development in the Justice Department's three-and-a-half-year investigation of Hynix, along with its rivals Samsung of South Korea; Infineon Technologies of Germany; and Elpida Memory of Japan. They were suspected of conspiring to fix prices of dynamic random access memory chips from April 1999 to June 2002. DRAM chips are the most common type of computer memory products, used in personal computers, printers and electronics devices. The Hynix executives are the second group of individuals to agree to prison sentences in the investigation. Thus far, nine individuals and four semiconductor companies have been charged as a result of the investigation, with fines totaling more than $731 million. Hynix agreed to pay a $185 million fine in May 2005. D. S. Kim, Hynix's general manager for worldwide sales and marketing, agreed to serve eight months; C. K. Chung, Hynix's director for global strategic account sales, will serve seven months; K. C. Suh, Hynix's senior manager of memory product marketing, will serve six months; and C. Y. Choi, a general manager for Hynix's German subsidiary, will serve five. Each executive also agreed to pay a $250,000 fine. The Justice Department had named six American computer companies that were harmed by the price fixing Dell, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, I.B.M. and Gateway all of them buyers of DRAM chips. In October 2004, Infineon agreed to a $160 million fine. In December of that year, four Infineon executives pleaded guilty to price fixing and served jail terms ranging from four to six months. Each executive also paid a $250,000 fine. In November 2005, Samsung agreed to a $300 million fine. In January, Elpida agreed to a fine of $84 million. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
