SAN FRANCISCO — A Taiwanese company was fined $500 million Thursday, and its former president and executive vice president were each sentenced to three years in prison for their leading roles in a global LCD screen price-fixing conspiracy.
The sentences handed down Thursday are among the harshest penalties ever given in an antitrust criminal case.
Still, the Department of Justice complained the punishments were not enough. Federal prosecutors demanded a $1 billion fine and a 10-year prison sentence for the executives.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she rejected the demand because A.U. Optronics has already paid out millions to settle a class-action lawsuit and still faced other lawsuits in the United States and around the world.
She also said the two executives — Hsuan Bin Chen and Hui Hsiung — didn’t deserve the lengthy prison sentences demanded by prosecutors because they acted not for personal gain like someone operating a Ponzi scheme but out of their sincere belief that they were aiding a troubled industry plagued by over-production and plummeting prices. Both men declined to address the court.
“There were a lot of business pressures they responded to,” the judge said. “There was relatively little personal motivation.”
