Wednesday April 29, 10:41 PM
Dutch Martinair exec pleads guilty in US to price-fixing
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Dutch Martinair airline executive has agreed to plead guilty, serve jail time and pay a criminal fine for participating in an international air cargo price-fixing conspiracy, the US government said Wednesday.
The Justice Department said that Franciscus Johannes de Jong, aka Frank de Jong, a Dutch citizen and the former vice president of cargo sales in Europe for the Dutch airline Martinair Holland, had pleaded guilty in a Washington federal (NASDAQ: WFSL - news) court.
Under the plea agreement, de Jong has agreed to serve eight months in jail, pay a 20,000-dollar criminal fine and cooperate with the ongoing investigation, the department said, noting the plea agreement is subject to court approval.
De Jong and his co-conspirators "engaged in a conspiracy to fix the cargo rates charged to customers for international air shipments, including to and from the United States," the department said.
According to the criminal charge, de Jong and his co-conspirators carried out the price-fixing conspiracy from at least as early as April 2002 and continuing until at least February 14, 2006.
De Jong's price-fixing charge carries a maximum fine of one million dollars and up to 10 years in prison. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine, the department said.
To date, 15 airlines and four executives have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the ongoing investigation into price fixing in the air transportation industry, the Justice Department said.
The companies have paid or agreed to pay criminal fines totaling more than 1.6 billion dollars and three executives have been given jail sentences.
It named the companies as British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) , Korean Airlines, Qantas Airways (Frankfurt: 896435 - news) , Japan Airlines, Martinair Holland, Cathay Pacific Airways, SAS Cargo, Societe Air France, KLM, LAN Cargo, Aerolinhas Brasileiras, EL AL Israel Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Asiana Airlines (020560.KS - news) and Cargolux Airlines International.
The airline executives identified by the department are Bruce McCaffrey of Qantas, Timothy Pfeil of SAS (Stockholm: SAS.ST - news) and Keith Packer of British Airways.
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