Article
The Indirect Bump: Indirect Commerce and Corporate Cartel Plea Agreements
Article
The Indirect Bump: Indirect Commerce and Corporate Cartel Plea Agreements
Spring 2013
Reprinted with permission from the American Bar Association.
Over the past few years, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division has continued to enter into plea agreements with corporate antitrust defendants which include record-level fines. Since the start of its 2012 fiscal year, the Antitrust Division has reached plea deals with twelve corporate defendants and has secured fines totaling almost $650 million. A majority of these plea agreements (and more than $600 million of the fines) were secured as part of the Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation into the automotive parts industry which the Division has described as “the largest criminal investigation the division has ever pursued.”