Japanese Auto Parts Companies & Five Executives Indicted for Rigging Honda Auto Parts Bids – 100s charged

Posted by CotoBlogzz

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.