A Korean executive at Samsung Electronics has agreed to plead guilty and serve jail time in the United States in connection with a global price-fixing conspiracy, according to the government. Young Hwan Park, president of Samsung Semiconductor, Samsung"s U.S.-based subsidiary, will serve 10 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine. According to a written statement from the Department of Justice, he also has agreed to assist the government in its ongoing investigation.
This is the fifth Samsung executive to agree to a prison sentence in the dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, price-fixing investigation. Three foreign-based executives and one U.S. executive from the company have already pleaded guilty and agreed to serve prison terms ranging from seven to eight months. Each will pay a fine of $250,000. Four companies and 18 people have been charged in the Justice Department"s investigation into a price-fixing conspiracy surrounding DRAM. Criminal fines totaling more than $730 million also have been levied. According to the government, this represents the second-largest total amount of fines ever imposed in a U.S. criminal antitrust investigation into one price-fixing conspiracy.