Col Mob

Shiu Lung Leung, AU Optronics Corporation’s former senior manager in the Desktop Display Business Group, was found guilty for his participation in a conspiracy to fix the prices of thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels sold worldwide from May 15, 2002 to Dec. 1, 2006. Leung was convicted after three-week trial in US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

Leung, along with company’s former president Hsuan Bin Chen and executive vice president Hui Hsiung held secret monthly meetings with their competitors in hotel conference rooms, karaoke bars and tea rooms around Taiwan to fix the prices. Chen and Hsiung were each sentenced to serve three years in prison and pay a $200,000 criminal fine. As a part of this conspiracy “eight companies have pleaded guilty or been convicted to date and have been sentenced to pay criminal fines totaling more than $1.39 billion. Of the 22 charged executives, 13 have pleaded guilty or have been convicted and seven remain fugitives. The executives who have been sentenced have been ordered to serve a combined total of 4,871 days in prison. The name of Taiwanese display manufacturer AU Optronics is rarely out of the courts when LCD price fixing is involved, and now another of the companys heavyweights has been convicted for the part he played in such crimes. The US Department of Justice announced that Shiu Lung Leung, formerly a senior manager at AUO, has been found guilty for his role in a "conspiracy" which artificially raised the prices of LCD-packing gear in the US. From 2002 through to 2006, Leung is said to have been privy to secret monthly meetings with his companys competitors, where they discussed price fixing (and presumably, sinister cat stroking) in "hotel conference rooms, karaoke bars and tea rooms." Leung joins a couple of other AUO execs and many from different companies whove received similar judgments, and when sentenced, could face up to a dime in the slammer and a hefty fine -- although we doubt any of that cash will be put towards a long-overdue rebate.

Via: teckshow