The Antitrust Division, through a federal grand jury, indicted seven Japanese executives for conspiring to fix prices in the long running auto parts investigation. There were two separate indictments. One charged executives from Mitsubishi Electric Corp. with conspiring to fix the prices of starter motors, alternators and ignition coils from at least 2000 through 2010. In the second indictment, four executives from Hitachi Automotive Systems were charged with conspiring to fix prices of multiple auto parts including starter motors, fuel injection systems, and ignition coils.
Atsushi Ueda, Minoru Kurisaki, and Hideyuki Saito of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. were charged with conspiring to fix the prices of certain automotive products sold to Ford Motor Company, General Motors LLC, Chrysler Group LLC, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Nissan Motor Company Ltd., and Honda Motor Company Ltd. in the United States and elsewhere. This indictment also charged Kurisaki and Saito with knowingly conspiring to obstruct justice by destroying documents and corruptly persuading, and attempting to persuade others, to destroy documents. Saito was charged in an additional count with knowingly and corruptly persuading, and attempting to persuade, executives to destroy documents and delete electronic data that may contain evidence of antitrust crimes.