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Rancho
Santa Margarita, CA – According to the Department of Justice’s Office of Public
Affairs, q federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of Ohio returned two indictments charging Japanese automotive parts
companies, their U.S. subsidiaries, and a total of five executives for their
alleged participation in international conspiracies to eliminate competition in
the sale of automotive parts sold in the United States and elsewhere, the
Justice Department announced today.
One of
the indictments, filed today in Cincinnati, charges Tokai Kogyo Co. Ltd., its
wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Green Tokai Co. Ltd., and Akitada Tazumi with
conspiring to rig bids for and fix the prices of automotive body sealing
products sold to Honda Motor Company Ltd. and certain of its subsidiaries and
affiliates for installation in vehicles manufactured and sold in the United
States and elsewhere.
In a
separate indictment, also filed in Cincinnati, Maruyasu Industries Co. Ltd.,
its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Curtis-Maruyasu America Inc. (CMA), Tadao
Hirade, Satoru Murai, Kazunori Kobayashi and Yoshihiro Shigematsu were charged
with conspiring to fix prices, allocate customers, and rig bids for automotive
steel tubes sold in the United States and elsewhere.
According
to the indictment charging Tokai Kogyo, Green Tokai, and Tazumi, the
defendants, along with their co-conspirators, participated in meetings and
conversations to discuss the allocation of sales of automotive body sealing
products, and the bids and price quotations that they would submit to
Honda. The indictment charges that the conspirators agreed on, and
exchanged information about, bids, price quotations, and price adjustments to
be submitted to Honda, and agreed to allocate sales of automotive body sealing
products sold to Honda. The conspirators concealed their conduct by using
code in e-mails and instructing e-mail recipients to delete e-mails referencing
coordination with competitors, according to the charge.
Tokai
Kogyo, Green Tokai, and Tazumi allegedly participated in the automotive body
sealing products conspiracy from at least as early as March 2008 until at least
August 2011. During this period, Tazumi served as Assistant General
Manager at Tokai Kogyo, an Obu, Japan-based company that manufactured and sold
automotive body sealing products.
According
to the indictment charging Maruyasu Industries, CMA, Hirade, Murai, Kobayashi
and Shigematsu, the defendants, along with their co-conspirators, participated
in and directed subordinate employees to participate in meetings conversations,
and communications in which they agreed to customer allocations as well as
bids, prices and price adjustments to be submitted to customers in the United
States and elsewhere. The indictment also alleges that the defendants and
their conspirators employed measures to conceal their conduct, including
meeting surreptitiously and adopting means and methods of communication
designed to avoid detection.
Maruyasu
Industries, CMA, Hirade, Murai, Kobayashi and Shigematsu allegedly participated
in the automotive steel tubes conspiracy from at least as early as December
2003 until at least as late as July 9, 2011. During this period, Hirade,
Murai, Kobayashi and Shigematsu served as sales executives at Maruyasu
Industries, headquartered in Aichi Prefecture in Japan. Additionally,
Kobayashi and Shigematsu each served as sales coordinators at Kentucky-based
CMA for several years during the conspiracy.
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