TAIPEI: A former executive with a color display tube (CDT) manufacturing company from Taiwan has been charged by the US Justice Department in connection with a sweeping price-fixing conspiracy.

Wen Jun Cheng, also known as Tony Cheng, was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges of participating in a global conspiracy to fix prices of CDTs, cathode ray tubes used in computer monitors and other devices.

Cheng allegedly plotted with unnamed co-conspirators to "suppress and eliminate competition by fixing prices, reducing output and allocating market shares of CDTs," the department said in a statement

The indictment described Cheng as a "former assistant vice president of sales and marketing" for a CDT company from Taiwan but did not identify the company he worked for by name, calling it only "Company A".

Cheng was indicted in February on charges of participating in a global conspiracy to fix prices of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels.

His employer was identified in the February indictment as Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd.

In the latest indictment, Cheng was accused of participating in a CDT price-fixing conspiracy from January 1999 until at least September 2004.

The Justice Department said Cheng and co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy through meetings, conversations and communications in Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Chinese mainland and elsewhere to discuss and agree on the prices, output and market shares of CDTs.

Cheng faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $1 million.

The indictment is the latest in a wide-ranging price-fixing investigation that has already led to charges or convictions of electronics executives from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

The Justice Department has imposed fines totaling $616 million on LG Display, Japan's Sharp Corp, Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd and Hitachi Displays Ltd of Japan in connection with the probe.

LG Display, formerly known as LG Philips LCD Co Ltd, agreed in November to pay a fine of $400 million. Chunghwa was fined $65 million while Sharp agreed to pay a $120 million fine.

Hitachi Displays Ltd agreed in March to pay a $31 million fine.

The fine levied on LG Display was the second-largest US antitrust fine after the record $500 million handed down against Swiss pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd in 1999 for fixing vitamin prices.

AFP

(HK Edition 08/21/2009 page2)