Three Indicted in DRAM Price Fixing

Three more executives from two memory chip makers were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges of price fixing and related crimes. Two were from Samsung, and the third from a U.S. subsidiary of Hynix.

Altogether, 16 executives across four companies have been charged in relation to the price fixing of DRAM chips. This includes four Hynix and four Samsung executives who plead guilty earlier this year, plus four Infineon executives. Jail terms have ranged anywhere from four to eight months.

Charged in Wednesday's indictment were Il Ung Kim and Young Bae Rha, who were the marketing and sales vice presidents respectively for Samsung at the time of the conspiracy; and Gary Swanson, then senior vice president of sales and marketing at Hynix.

Among the charges levied against the three include participation in meetings to artificially fix memory prices, exchanging sales data to monitor pricing, authorizing employees to participate in the conspiracy, and concealment of the crime among other charges.

"The Antitrust Division will vigorously pursue individuals who engage in criminal cartel conspiracies," said Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. "Criminal cartel enforcement is the Division's top priority and both companies and individuals must comply with the antitrust laws."

The maximum penalty for these crimes is fines of $250,000 and up to three years in jail. Hynix had no comment in the matter, while Samsung could not be reached for comment.