HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) president Joe Chou (周定輝) was indicted by the US Department of Justice yesterday for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to fix LCD panel prices.
The Taiwanese flat-panel manufacturing firm said it did not expect the charges to have a serious impact on the company’s operations and finance.
Chou was the latest Taiwanese executive to be indicted in a US investigation into charges of a global conspiracy to fix LCD panel prices.
COMPETITION
The US District Court in San Francisco accused Chou of conspiring with others to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing the prices of TFT-LCD panels during the period from Sept. 14, 2001, to Jan. 31, 2006.
Chou allegedly participated in the conspiracy by agreeing to fix prices of TFT-LCD panels during secret meetings, referred to as “Crystal Meetings,” in hotel rooms in Taipei, according to a press release from the Justice Department.
Chou may face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of US$1 million, the statement said.
The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine, it added.
The participants in the conspiracy also allegedly exchanged information on the sales of TFT-LCD panels for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices, the statement said.
More than US$890 million in fines have been issued to date, the Justice Department said.
Including the latest indictment, 22 executives and eight companies have been charged in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing in the LCD industry.
In response to the charges, HannStar said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that the company’s “finance and business would not be greatly affected” by the indictment.
SHARE ISSUE
Separately, HannStar expects to raise at least NT$3.17 billion (US$107 million) by issuing a maximum of 700 million common shares via private placement.
The price was set at NT$5 per share yesterday, implying a 14.53 percent discount from the stock’s closing price of NT$5.85 on Thursday.
The company plans to use the proceeds to fund a share buyback program of 180 million special shares from South Korean rival LG Display Co Ltd. HannStar plans to cancel those shares after completing the repurchase.
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