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Hitachi Fined $31 Million For LCD Price Fixing
MojoKid writes "The Japanese electronics manufacturer has
just agreed to pay a staggering $31 million fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices in the sale of TFT-LCD panels sold to Dell, Inc. The United States Department of Justice made the proclamation, and details show that Hitachi has plead guilty to a one-count felony.
The charge, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, blames Hitachi Displays Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., with 'participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of TFT-LCD sold to Dell for use in desktop monitors and notebook computers from April 1, 2001 through March 31, 2004.'"
High or low? I guess it would be "dumping" if low...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
did they make more than $31 mil profit by fixing the prices? If they did then they got away with it.
Once again a corporation is allowed to steal and not pay back what it stole...
While an individual would have to pay every DIME back and then pay a penalty on TOP of that...
Pathetic
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
How come when companies break the law they get to "agree" on the punishment?
See, that's where it's so unfair to treat companies as people. They get the benefits, but not the downsides. If *I* committed a felony I would go to gaol. A company gets a smack on the wrist and it is business as usual.
What we need is a gaol for companies. If a person has to lose "X" years of their life by being locked up, why not a company? Being in "gaol" might mean that the company is nationalised for the length of the sentence and all profits go to the government.
Does the government keep the $31 million, or does it get distributed to those people who bought price-fixed displays? If the government keeps it, do the victims get a tax cut?
I'd rather a profitable, productive company like Hitachi keep the money than the parasitic government.
$25 billion in profits last year. Yep, that $31 million fine is staggering.
Citation please? According to http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/earnings/earnings.asp?symbol=6581.T
Hitachi's revenue for 2008 was 175B yen or $1.8B. Which is not even the net profit, it's the all monies coming in before expenses. This is no where near $25B in profit.
In fact they made a net profit of 1.5B yen or $129 Million for 2007. $31 million is almost a quarter of their profits for 2007. For 2008(3-08 to 3-09) they are posting a $7.8B loss.
http://retrenchment-blog.breaking.sg/2009/01/hitachi-cuts-7000-jobs-worldwide/
Remember, this Hitachi is only a small subsidiary of the bigger Hitachi, and mentioned in TFA.
details show that Hitachi has plead guilty to a one-count felony.
Damn. Poor Hitachi. They just lost their right to vote and carry a gun.
There's no place like
Does anyone know where I can find the short list of corporations that are not convicted felons?
It's odd the way that people who would never in a million years do business with an individual with a felony record (would you buy a house from someone convicted of fraud?) keep on sending their cash to three time loser corporations.
You're right. When the economy is bad, we should let corporations get away with breaking any laws or regulations they want to in order to maintain a healthy profit, thereby maintaining jobs. This is especially important when the economy is bad in large part because we let corporations get away with breaking any laws or regulations they wanted to in order to maintain a healthy profit.
In 2005, Samsung paid $300m for price fixing. Hynix paid $185m. Infineon paid $160m, and four of its execs went to prison and paid $250,000 each.
In 2008, LG paid $400m in fines for price fixing. Sharp paid $120m. Chunghwa paid $65m.
So... $35m. In this context, not very "staggering".
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