U.S.: Three agree to plead guilty in parts price fixing

0

CLEVELAND (AP) — Three executives in Japan’s automotiveparts industry have agreed to plead
guilty to a price-fixing conspiracyand two more have been indicted in the U.S. investigation,
thegovernment said Thursday.The plea agreements filed in Detroit andthe indictment filed in Toledo were
announced Thursday by the U.S.Department of Justice.The Justice Department said Yasuhiko Ueno,Saburo
Imamiya and Yoshinobu Fujino, all executives of Tokyo-basedTakata Corp.,agreed to plead guilty to
charges of participating in aconspiracy to rig prices for seatbelts sold to Toyota Motor Corp.,
HondaMotor Co. Ltd., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Fuji Heavy Industries Inc.(Subaru) and Mazda Motor Corp. in
the U.S. and elsewhere.The three have agreed to serve prison sentences ranging from 14 to 19 months, the
government said.Theindictment filed in Toledo charged Masao Hayashi and Kenya Nonoyama,both Japanese
nationals, with participating in a conspiracy to fixprices of anti-vibration rubber parts sold to Toyota
for installation inautomobiles manufactured and sold in the U.S.Their company was identified in the
indictment only as Company A, based in Osaka, Japan.Takata said it has cooperated in the
investigation."Weare committed to strengthening our reputation as a trusted supplier ofautomotive
parts while also focusing on additional training internally,"communications vice president Alby
Berman said in an email.No attorneys are listed in court records for the defendants.Copyright 2013 The
Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
orredistributed.

No posts to display