Samsung Exec Guilty of RAM Price Fixing
Samsung Exec Guilty of RAM Price Fixing
by , 9:10 AM EDT, September 22nd, 2006
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said that Samsung's vice president of marketing, Thomas Quinn, plead guilty to memory price fixing and will serve eight months in jail. According to InfoWorld, Mr. Quinn was accused of participating in a price-fixing conspiracy.
The DOJ claimed that he helped arrange a scheme to fix the price of DRAM chips and coordinate chip bids in a Sun Microsystems auction on December 5, 2001.
Mr. Quinn agreed to plead guilty and pay a US$250,000 fine in addition to serving jail time. He will also assist in the ongoing price fixing investigation that the DOJ is conduction with the FBI.
Three other Samsung executives plead guilty in similar DOJ charges in March. Samsung's senior manager of DRAM sales, Sun Woo Lee, agreed to a deal that includes an eight month prison sentence. Yeongho Kang, associate director of DRAM Marketing, and Young Woo Lee, sales director for Samsung's German subsidiary, agreed to deals that include seven month prison sentences. All are paying $250,000 fines as well.
In July, 34 states filed cases against several chip makers, for artificially inflating memory prices.
Observer Comments
Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:53 am Subject: Giant misunderstanding
When investigators raided Samsung's corporate headquarters to talk to Mr. Quinn, they closed the door to interrogate him. Quinn remained behind his desk, with 2 investigators seated comfortably in front of him, and 3 investigators standing menacingly behind them.
Whoooosh
Investigator 1: What was that?
Mr. Quinn: What?
Investigator 2: That sound. I heard it too.
Investigator 3: Sir, I think it came from the desk.
Whoooosh
Investigator 1: OK Mr. Quinn, enough of the funny business. What is that sound.
Mr. Quinn: Ummmmmm.....
Investigator 4 moves behind the desk, looks under and discover's Mr. Quinn's pants around his ankles and some sort of tube mechanism attached to his [CENSORED].
Mr. Quinn: I am so embarrassed. Please don't tell my wife and kids. Could we make up a story about how this is my "memory price inflator"? I'll plead guilty to anything, even do jail time. Does my lawyer even have to know about this?
Investigator 1: I think we've got our man, agents.
Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:08 pm Subject: Let's hope this puts an end to Apple's ludicrous RAM prices
Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:26 am Subject: Bosco's Comments
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