US charges Japanese airlines execs with price fixing
16 / 11 / 2010
THE US has charged three Japanese airline executives with cargo price-fixing.
Takao Fukuchi, JAL’s former vice-president of cargo, and Yoshio Kunugi and Naoshige Makino, both ex-senior executives of Nippon Cargo Airlines, conspired to coordinate cargo rates charged to customers for international air shipments to and from the United States. Fukuchi and Kunugi were involved from December 1999 to February 2006, Makino from June 2001 to February 2006.
If they are found guilty, each could receive a maximum penalty 10 years in prison and a US$1 million criminal fine. The fine could be increased to twice what their companies gained or twice what their customers lost.