SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department said Samsung SDI Co. Ltd., had agreed to pay $32 million to settle charges of price fixing in the color display tube market.
The company agreed to plead guilty to one felony charge of price fixing, which was filed Friday, and to cooperate in an ongoing investigation, the department said.
The firm was charged with conspiring with other companies to adjust production schedules in order to limit supplies of the CDTs, which are cathode ray tubes used in some computer monitors.
Samsung SDI met with representatives of other companies in a series of meetings in Asia to coordinate the scheme, sharing company information with co-conspirators, the Justice Department said.
The price scheme began as early as January 1997 and continued until March 2006.
The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is subject to judicial review.
Charges have also been filed against six individuals connected to the case. Chen Yuan Lin was indicted in Feb. 2009. In August 2009, Wen Jun Shen was indicted on similar charges.
In March 2010, Chung Cheng Yeh was indicted and in November 2010, indictments were filed against Seung-Kyu Lee, Yeong-Ug Yang and Jae-Sik Kim.
