A federal grand jury in San Francisco has charged Tony Cheng (鄭文俊), a former executive at Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), in connection with a major price-fixing conspiracy.
Cheng faces up to 10 years in prison and US$1 million in fines if convicted.
A US Department of Justice statement only identified Cheng as a “former assistant vice president of sales and marketing” for Taiwanese “Company A” and did not give the company’s name.
But Cheng was said to work for the color display tube (CDT) manufacturer Chunghwa Picture Tubes when he was indicted last February.
Cheng was accused at that time of participating in a global price-fixing scheme involving Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels.
In the latest charge, Cheng is alleged to have plotted with other parties, who are not named in the indictment, to “suppress and eliminate competition by fixing prices, reducing output and allocating market shares of CDTs.”
CDTs are used in computer monitors and other electronics.
In its statement, the justice department said Cheng had collaborated in the conspiracy from January 1999 until at least September 2004.
“Tony Cheng and co-conspirators carried out the CDT conspiracy by attending meetings and engaging in conversations and communications in Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, China and elsewhere to discuss and agree on the prices, output and market shares of CDTs,” the statement said.
“Cheng and co-conspirators are also alleged to have implemented an auditing system to verify that production lines had been shut down as agreed, and to have taken steps to conceal the conspiracy,” it said.
Cheng is charged with violating the Sherman Act. If convicted, his fine could be increased to twice the profit he earned from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims if either of those amounts is greater than US$1 million.
The statement said: “This case is part of an ongoing joint investigation by the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice and the FBI in San Francisco.”
The Cheng indictment is the latest in a wide-ranging price-fixing investigation involving electronics executives from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
So far, fines totaling US$616 million have been imposed on LG Display, Japan’s Sharp Corp, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Hitachi Displays Ltd of Japan.
Chunghwa was fined US$65 million.
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