Former Taiwanese exec indicted in CDT price-fixing conspiracy

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By Team Diginews4u ⋅ August 20, 2009 ⋅

A federal grand jury in San Francisco has returned an indictment against a former executive of a Taiwanese colour display tube (CDT) manufacturing company for participating in a global conspiracy to fix prices of CDTs, a type of cathode ray tube used in computer monitors and other specialised applications, the Department of Justice announced on 19 August.

The indictment, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, charges Wen Jun (Tony) Cheng, a former Assistant Vice President of Sales and Marketing, with conspiring with unnamed co-conspirators to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing prices, reducing output, and allocating market shares of CDTs.

The Department alleges that Cheng participated in the conspiracy beginning at least as early as January 1999 until at least September 2004.

Cheng was previously indicted on 3 February 2009, for his participation in a global conspiracy to fix prices of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels.

The indictment alleges, among other things, that Tony Cheng and co-conspirators carried out the CDT conspiracy by attending meetings and engaging in conversations and communications in Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, China and elsewhere to discuss and agree on the prices, output and market shares of CDTs. Cheng and co-conspirators are also alleged to have implemented an auditing system to verify that production lines had been shut down as agreed, and to have taken steps to conceal the conspiracy.

Cheng is charged with violating the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $1m for individuals for violations occurring after 22 June 2004. The maximum fines may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims if either or those amounts is greater than the Sherman Act maximum fines.

This case is part of an ongoing joint investigation by the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Francisco.

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