Former Corning unit exec charged with price-fixing, bid-rigging

Detroit, Michigan – A former executive at a unit of Corning Inc. was charged with conspiring to fix prices and rig bids by a federal grand jury as part of the ongoing US Justice Department’s antitrust investigation of auto suppliers.

Nobuhiko Niwa was charged 11 May in US District Court in Detroit with fixing prices and rigging bids on ceramic substrates used in emissions control systems sold to General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Honda Motor Co.

Niwa was the director of the mobile emissions division at Corning International KK, a Japanese subsidiary of Corning, between July 1999 and July 2011, when the alleged crimes took place. A Corning spokesman said Niwa, a Japanese national, left the company in 2012.

His whereabouts were not immediately known. As many as 20 Japanese nationals indicted in similar U.S. cases have avoided prosecution by remaining in Japan. No known extraditions have taken place.

“Niwa’s role in rigging bids and fixing prices to increase revenues subverted the free market structure of our economy,” said David Gelios, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Detroit division. “The scheme came at a cost to auto manufacturers, suppliers, and ultimately, consumers. Criminal acts that negatively impact consumers and damage our economy will be actively investigated and prosecuted.”

Niwa is one of 59 people to be charged as part of the Justice Department’s larger investigation into price fixing among parts suppliers. Thirty-nine companies also have been charged.

The Justice Department (DOJ) said the companies and individuals have agreed to pay more than $2.6 billion (€2.3 billion) in fines.

Prosecutors allege Niwa met with co-conspirators to allocate market share and customers in the U.S., negotiate prices and exchange capacity and sales information.

The substrates in question were manufactured at Corning’s plants in Erwin, New York, and Blacksburg, Virginia, and were sold by the subsidiary Niwa worked for, according to the one-count indictment.

A Corning spokesman said the company has not been charged and that it is “cooperating with the DOJ on their investigation.”