Samsung Executive Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing

An executive with Samsung Semiconductor, Thomas Quinn, entered a guilty plea to fixing prices in the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip market, marking yet another prosecution of executives of the leading manufacturers.  According to a Department of Justice press release (here), Quinn admitted to "[p]articipating in meetings, conversations, and communications with competitors to discuss the prices of DRAM to be sold to certain customers; and . . . [a]greeing with competitors to coordinate bids submitted to Sun Microsystems Inc."  Quinn is the fourth Samsung executive, and the first from the United States, to plead guilty in the wide-ranging DRAM antitrust investigation, and will serve an eight month prison term.  The four leading manufacturers, Samsung, Hynix, Elpida Memory, and Infineon have all entered guilty pleas to fixing prices. (ph)