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Japanese Firm Agrees to Plead Guilty to Price-Fixing Charges
In a shocking turn of events, Yamato Global Logistics Japan Co. Ltd., a Japanese freight forwarding company, has agreed to plead guilty to price-fixing charges and pay a $2.3 million criminal fine, according to the Antitrust Division.
According to the charges, Yamato Global Logistics Japan Co. Ltd. engaged in a conspiracy to fix and impose certain freight forwarding service fees, including fuel surcharges and various security fees, charged to customers for services provided in connection with freight forwarding shipments of cargo shipped by air from Japan to the United States from about September 2002 until at least November 2007.
As part of the plea agreement, the company has agreed to pay a criminal fine of $2,326,774 and to cooperate with the department’s ongoing antitrust investigation.
“Consumers ultimately were forced to pay higher prices on the goods they buy every day as a result of the noncompetitive and collusive service fees charged by these companies,” said Scott D. Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program. “Prosecuting these kinds of global price-fixing conspiracies continues to be a high priority of the Antitrust Division.”
The company’s actions were part of a larger conspiracy that involved 13 other companies, which have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $100 million in criminal fines.
Freight forwarders, like Yamato Global Logistics Japan Co. Ltd., manage the domestic and international delivery of cargo for customers by receiving, packaging, preparing and warehousing cargo freight, arranging for cargo shipment through transportation providers such as air carriers, preparing shipment documentation and providing related ancillary services.
Anyone with information concerning price fixing or other anticompetitive conduct in the freight forwarding industry is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section at 202-307-6694 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contract/newcase.htm or call the FBI’s Washington Field Office at 202-278-2000.
Key Facts
- State: Federal
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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