Fifth Samsung Exec Pleads Guilty in DRAM Price Fixing Probe

Reuters and the Associated Press are both reporting that a fifth senior executive of world #1 DRAM manufacturer Samsung has agreed to plead guilty in connection with the US Justice Dept.'s investigation into memory industry collusion and price fixing.

Former Samsung vice president of sales Young Hwan Park will plead guilty and cooperate with the federal investigation, after which he will reportedly pay a $250,000 fine and spend ten months in prison. Samsung Electronics last month pled guilty for its own part, and was fined $300 million. Park is one of 18 executives from four organizations - Samsung, Hynix Semiconductor, Elpida, and Infineon (which has since spun off its memory unit as Qimonda) - to have been directly charged in the price-fixing probe since it began in 2002.

A separate case against these same four companies and many of their smaller competitors continues in New York State.