Diamond Electric Mfg. Co. (6895.TO) agreed to plead guilty and
pay a $19 million criminal fine for its role in a scheme to fix
prices on ignition coils installed in cars sold in the U.S. and
elsewhere, according to the Justice Department.
The department also said Takayoshi Matsunaga, a current employee
of Autoliv Inc. (ALV) and former vice president of the Toyota
global business unit at Autoliv Japan, agreed to plead guilty for
his role in a conspiracy to fix the prices of certain seatbelts
sold to Toyota Motor Corp. (TM). Mr. Matsunaga agreed to serve one
year and one day in a U.S. prison, pay a $20,000 criminal fine and
cooperate with the department's continuing investigation.
Diamond Electric is alleged to have conspired to fix prices on
parts sold to Ford Motor Co. (F), Toyota, Fuji Heavy Industries
Ltd. (FUJHY, 7270.TO) and some of their units from July 2003
through at least February 2010. The Justice Department said it is
the first case in the U.S. involving parts sold directly to an auto
maker based in the U.S.
Spokesmen for Ford, Autoliv and Diamond Electric weren't
immediately available to comment.
In June, Stockholm-based Autoliv agreed to plead guilty and pay
a $14.5 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix
the prices of certain seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels
installed in U.S. cars.
Including Diamond Electric and Mr. Matsunaga, 10 companies and
15 executives have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in a
continuing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the
auto-parts industry and have agreed to pay a total of $828 million
in criminal fines.
Write to Tess Stynes at Tess.Stynes@dowjones.com
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