WASHINGTON (AFP) — Japan Airlines International (JAL) has agreed to plead guilty and pay a 110 million dollar criminal fine for its role in a price-fixing scandal tied to air cargo shipments, the US Justice Department announced Wednesday.
JAL's admission of criminal wrongdoing comes after the Justice Department reached similar agreements with other carriers last year, including British Airways and Korean Air Lines.
"This price-fixing conspiracy inflicted a heavy toll on American businesses and consumers," a senior Justice Department antitrust official, Thomas Barnett, said of the JAL settlement.
Asia's largest carrier confirmed it had agreed to plead guilty in the case in a statement posted on its corporate website. It said it had also cooperated "fully" with the US government probe.
According to the Justice Department, JAL "engaged in a conspiracy" in the United States and other countries to cut out competition by fixing the rates on international shipments of air cargo to and from America and elsewhere.
Tokyo-based JAL participated in the scheme for almost six years from on or about April 1, 2000 through to February 2006.
Investigators said that during that time JAL was the largest cargo carrier between the United States and Japan and that it reaped almost two billion dollars from its cargo flights to and from the United States.
The Japanese carrier set it had set aside 11.5 billion yen (around 113 million dollars) in the expectation it would have to pay a fine to settle the investigation.
"The JAL Group's policy is to conduct its business in full compliance with all laws and regulations, including those relating to competition, in all jurisdictions in which it operates," the airline said.
Barnett said JAL executives have agreed to cooperate with the department's ongoing price-fixing probe which is being supported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Justice Department charged JAL with participating "in meetings, conversations and communications" in the United States to fix the cargo rates levied on shipments to and from the country among other charges.
The charges were filed against JAL in a Washington DC federal court.
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