Japanese Firm is 14th Pleading Guilty to Freight Forwarding Price Fixing Charges
A Japanese freight forwarding company agreed to plead guilty and pay a $2.3 million criminal fine for a conspiracy to fix fees for provision of freight forwarding services for air cargo shipments from Japan to the U.S., the Department of Justice said. It's the 14th company to agree to plead guilty as a result of the investigation, and to pay more than $100 million in criminal fines, DoJ said.
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The felony charge filed in the U.S. District Court, D.C., said Yamato Global Logistics Japan conspired to fix and to impose freight forwarding service fees, including fuel surcharges and security fees, charged to customers for forwarding shipments of cargo by air from Japan to the U.S. from about September 2002 until at least November 2007. It said the company agreed during meetings to coordinate and impose certain freight forwarding service fees and charges on customers, and levied freight forwarding service fees in accordance with the agreements.
The joint investigation into freight forwarding was done by the Antitrust Division's National Criminal Enforcement Section, the FBI's Washington Field Office and the Department of Commerce's Office of Inspector General.