Young Hwan Park , president of San Jose-based Samsung Semiconductor Inc., has agreed to plead guilty to computer memory price fixing charges. BusinessWeek reports that he will serve a prison sentence for his part in a scheme that over charged Apple and other computer manufacturers for DRAM memory modules.
The charges against Samsungis president stemmed from a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into a price fixing scheme where several memory chip manufacturers artificially raised prices in 2001.
Samsung is not discussing its plans now that its leader faces jail time. Company spokeswoman Chris Goodhart commented "Samsung is strongly committed to fair competition and ethical practices and forbids anticompetitive behavior."
Several other top executives have also pled guilty to similar charges. In September, vice president of marketing Thomas Quinn pled guilty and received an 8 month prison sentence and US$250,000 fine.
In March, 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 Samsungis German subsidiary, get to spend seven months in prison as a part of their plea deals.