Sixth Samsung executive pleads guilty in price-fixing scheme

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A sixth executive of South Korean electronics giant Samsung agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiring to fix prices for memory chips, and to serve 14 months in prison, officials said Thursday.

The Justice Department said Il Ung Kim, a Korean executive, agreed to serve 14 months in a US prison, described as the longest imprisonment ever for a foreign defendant charged with price fixing in the United States.

Kim, vice president of marketing for the memory division at the Korean electronics group, agreed to plead guilty to a single count of price fixing and to pay a 250,000-dollar criminal fine in addition to the prison term.

The plea is to be entered in court next week, with approval by a judge required.

The case is the latest...