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Three foreign airlines to plead guilty to cargo price-fixing: US
2009-04-09
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Three international airlines -- Nippon Cargo Airlines of Japan, South Korea's Asiana Airlines and Luxembourg-based Cargolux Airlines International -- have agreed to plead guilty and pay fines for their roles in a cargo price-fixing scheme, the US government said Thursday. The Justice Department said that each company had "agreed to plead guilty and pay criminal fines totaling 214 million dollars for conspiring to fix prices in the air cargo industry." In addition, Asiana was charged with fixing the passenger fares charged on flights from the United States to South Korea, it said in a statement. The Justice Department said that under the plea agreements, which are subject to court approval, Cargolux, Nippon Cargo and Asiana had agreed to cooperate with its ongoing investigation. Fifteen airlines and three executives have been prosecuted so far for their involvement in price-fixing agreements that have "inflicted a heavy toll on American businesses and consumers as well as the global economy," said Scott Hammond, assistant attorney general in charge of the department?s antitrust division. "The department will continue its investigation into this criminal conduct until all co-conspirators are brought to justice," he said. According to the charges filed Thursday in a US District Court in Washington, Cargolux was accused of a conspiracy to end competition by fixing the cargo rates charged to customers for international air shipments from 2001 to 2006. The company has agreed to pay a 119-million-dollar fine. Nippon Cargo was charged with a conspiracy to eliminate competition by fixing the cargo rates charged to customers for international air shipments from 2000 to 2006. NCA has agreed to pay a 45-million-dollar fine. Asiana was accused of conspiring to eliminate competition by fixing both cargo rates and passenger fares from 2000 to 2006. Asiana has agreed to pay a 50 million dollar fine. The cases arose from an ongoing investigation into the air transportation industry, the department statement said. It named the other companies that had pleaded or agreed to plead guilty to price fixing so far as British Airways, Korean Airlines, Qantas Airways, Japan Airlines, Martinair Holland, Cathay Pacific Airways, SAS Cargo, Societe Air France, KLM, LAN Cargo, Aerolinhas Brasileiras, and EL AL Israel Airlines. Additionally, three individuals had previously pleaded guilty for their involvement in the "illegal" activity, the statement said. Collectively, the companies have paid or agreed to pay fines totaling more than 1.6 billion dollars and all three executives were sentenced to serve jail time, it said.
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