Second K Line exec jailed for price fixing in the US

Takashi Yamaguchi, a former general manager and executive officer in K-Line’s car carrier division, pleaded guilty to price fixing and was sentenced to 14 months in jail and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine the US Department of Justice said.

He was charged with conspiring to allocate customers and routes, rig bids and fix prices for the sale of international ocean shipments of roll-on, roll-off cargo to and from the US and elsewhere, including the Port of Baltimore, between July 2006 and April 2010.

“Today’s sentencing is another step in our efforts to hold executives accountable for raising the cost of shipping cars, trucks and other equipment to and from the United States,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice.  “We will continue to pursue the corporations and executives whose illegal agreements have harmed American consumers.” 

A week earlier K Line employee Hiroshige Tanioka was sentenced to 18 months jail after pleading guilty to similar charges for offences committed between 1998 and 2002.

In November 2014 K Line was ordered to pay a fine of $67.7m for price fixing.