AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) yesterday said company CEO and president Chen Lai-juh (陳來助) has agreed to stay in the US at the request of the US District Court in San Francisco to help clear the price-fixing allegations against him and the company.
The nation’s second-largest LCD panel maker issued a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday saying that Chen recently traveled to the US to prove his innocence in a global conspiracy to fix the price of TFT-LCD panels.
A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Chen and five other current and former AU Optronics officials, including AU Optronics vice chairman Chen Hsuan-bin (陳炫彬) and board member Hui Hsiung (熊暉), for allegedly participating in the price-fixing scheme from Sept. 14, 2001 to Dec. 1, 2006, the US Justice Department said in a statement on June 10.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Chen Hsuan-bin, who also serves as chairman at two AU Optronics subsidiaries — lamp maker Wellypower Optronics Corp (威力盟) and LED maker Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子) — and board member Hui Hsiung, president of local electronics contract maker Qisda Corp (佳世達), said in separate exchange filings yesterday that they would also stay in the US to defend themselves against the allegations.
The filings came after the US court decided to bar Chen Lai-juh, Chen Hsuan-bin and Hui Hsiung from leaving the US without its permission, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a ruling by federal judge Susan Illston for the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Based on court documents posted on the US Justice Department’s Web site, Hsiung was to attend a bail hearing on Aug. 6, while Chen Lai-juh, Chen Hsuan-bin and three others were to participate in a motion hearing on the same day, at the San Francisco court. These six current and former AU Optronics officials returned for a bond hearing on Aug. 12 at the same court.
In response, AU Optronics said its executives went to attend those pre-trial hearings voluntarily and had hired legal counsel to help resolve the case. The company also said its operations would remain normal because acting executives would take charge of daily operations when senior officials are not around.
So far, 19 executives from Taiwan’s Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (華映), South Korea’s LG Display Co and Sharp Corp and Japan’s Hitachi Displays Ltd and Epson Imaging Devices Corp have pleaded guilty and agreed to pay fines totaling more than US$890 million, the US Justice Department said in a statement on Aug. 4.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that AU Optronics’ US$3 billion China investment application has not been included in the agenda of a review meeting of the Investment Commission to be held at the end of this month, Central News Agency reported, citing unnamed ministry officials.
In March, the LCD maker filed the application to set up a 7.5-generation flat panel plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, after the government relaxed restrictions to allow Taiwanese companies to build up to three 6G or above plants in China.
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