DeBeers Centenary to pay $10 million fine

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 13 (UPI) -- De Beers Centenary AG pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal diamond price-fixing charges in Columbus, Ohio, and was sentenced to pay a $10 million criminal fine.

In a plea agreement entered in U.S. District Court in Columbus, De Beers admitted it reached agreements with its co-conspirator to raise list prices for certain industrial diamond products sold worldwide in 1991 and 1992, the Justice Department said.

In 1994, a federal grand jury in Columbus indicted De Beers, The company's alleged co-conspirator, the General Electric Co., was tried and acquitted by the district court.

De Beers Centenary, headquartered in Switzerland, was not tried because the court lacked jurisdiction over the company. In the plea agreement, De Beers consented to the jurisdiction of the court so as to resolve the case, the department said.

Diamond tool manufacturers use industrial diamond products in cutting and polishing tools for manufacturing and construction applications, including road construction, stone cutting, automobile manufacturing, mining and oil drilling.