Six employees of a Taiwanese maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and its US subsidiary have been charged with price-fixing, the US Justice Department said Thursday.
A federal grand jury in San Francisco charged the six executives with AU Optronics Corp. and its Houston-based US subsidiary AU Optronics Corp. America with conspiring to fix LCD prices, the department said in a statement.
Two former executives with Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. and one from South Korea's LG Display Co. Ltd. have already been indicted in the same case, part of a sweeping US probe into price-fixing worldwide.
The six executives of AU Optronics, which is based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, were charged with conspiring to fix the prices of LCD panels, which are used in computer monitors, televisions, mobile phones and other electronic devices, between September 2001 and December 2006
They were identified as AU Optronics president Hsuan Bin Chen, AU Optronics executive vice president Hui Hsiung, and four other AU executives: Lai-Juh Chen, Shiu Lung Leung, Borlong Bai and Tsannrong Lee.
They could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted of the price-fixing charges and fines of one million dollars each.
Six electronics firms have pleaded guilty in connection with the case and paid fines totaling more than 860 million dollars. Seventeen executives have been charged so far.
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