CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Elpida
Fined $84 Million in DRAM Price Fix
20 Corporate Crime Reporter 6(5), January 30, 2006
Elpida Memory Inc., a Japanese manufacturer of dynamic random access memory
(DRAM), will plead guilty and pay an $84 million fine for participating in an
international conspiracy to fix prices in the DRAM market.
Federal officials alleged
that Elpida conspired other DRAM manufacturers to fix the prices of DRAM sold
to certain computer and server manufacturers.
The customers directly affected by the price-fixing conspiracy were: Dell Inc.,
Compaq Computer Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Apple Computer Inc., International
Business Machines Corporation, and Gateway Inc.
Elpida also conspired with an unnamed DRAM manufacturer to rig a bid for a lot
sold to Sun Microsystems Inc. in March 2002.
The Justice Department said that it will enter into non prosecution agreements
with Elpida's corporate predecessors, NEC Corporation and Hitachi Ltd.
DRAM is the most commonly used semiconductor memory product, providing high-speed
storage and retrieval of electronic information for a wide variety of computer,
telecommunication, and consumer electronic products.
Elpida is the fourth company to agree to plead guilty to price-fixing charges
in the DRAM industry.
In October 2004, German manufacturer Infineon Technologies AG pled guilty and
was sentenced to pay a $160 million criminal fine for its role in the DRAM conspiracy.
In May 2005, Korean manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor Inc. pled guilty and was
sentenced to pay a $185 million criminal fine.
In November 2005, Korean manufacturer Samsung Semiconductor Inc. and its parent
company Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. pled guilty and were sentenced to pay
a $300 million criminal fine.
Four Infineon executives, T. Rudd Corwin, Peter Schaefer, Gunter Hefner, and
Heinrich Florian, pled guilty to the DRAM price-fixing conspiracy in December
2004.
The Infineon employees served jail terms ranging from four to six months and
each has paid a fine of $250,000.
Three of the charged Infineon employees are German citizens.
In December 2003, the Department charged Alfred P. Censullo, a regional sales
manager for Micron Technology, Inc., with obstruction of justice.
Censullo pled guilty to the charge and admitted to having withheld and altered
documents responsive to a grand jury subpoena served on Micron in June 2002.
Censullo was sentenced to serve six months of home detention.
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