By Lorraine Luk
TAIPEI--A federal jury in San Francisco Wednesday found AU
Optronics Corp. (AUO) executive Steven Leung guilty of
participating in a scheme to fix prices on liquid-crystal-display
panels.
In response to the jury's findings, AU Optronics, Taiwan's
second-largest flat screen maker by revenue, said Thursday it was
"disappointed" with the result, adding that it was unaware of the
timetable of the judge's final verdict.
This comes after a U.S. federal judge in September ordered that
AU Optronics pay a US$500 million fine for fixing prices on LCD
panels. The price collusion has resulted in higher prices for
televisions, laptops and other consumer electronics, U.S. lawyers
have said.
In the past, LCD suppliers like LG Display Co. and Samsung
Electronics Co. (005930.SE, SSNHY) had agreed to pay fines to
settle price-fixing cases in the U.S., although the penalty against
AU Optronics is among the stiffest on record for antitrust
cases.
In September, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston sentenced H.B.
Chen and Hui Hsiung--senior AU Optronics executives from 2001 to
2006, when the price collusion allegedly took place--to three years
in prison. They were each ordered to pay fines of US$200,000.
At the time, a jury had deadlocked on charges against Mr. Leung,
leading to his retrial.
The Justice Department had won a conviction against AU Optronics
and the executives in March, and it sought a fine of $1 billion
against the company--twice the largest single fine it has ever
collected in an antitrust case. It also asked Judge Illston to
impose 10-year prison terms on the executives, more than double the
four-year jail sentence that stands as the current record for a
violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Prosecutors had argued the proposed penalties were needed to
deter large, highly-profitable price-fixing conspiracies in the
future.
The case was a rare event in the antitrust world, as most
companies don't challenge government price-fixing allegations at
trial because of the potentially staggering fines involved.
Write to Lorraine Luk at lorraine.luk@dowjones.com
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