You are here
Jim Puplava interviews Embry, Turk, and Murphy on gold market manipulation
"Conspiracies rarely exist, and when they do, they are far
more often than not exposed."
-- Dennis Gartman in The Gartman Letter, Tuesday,
September 14, 2004
* * *
24 hours later, another fantastic rarity burst into
view. But of course the authorities always catch them
all. ...
* * *
Infineon to Plead Guilty
in Memory Chip Case
By Peter Kaplan and Daniel Sorid
Reuters
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6247206
WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO -- Germany's Infineon
Technologies AG has agreed to plead guilty to charges
of price fixing and pay a $160 million fine as part
of a federal investigation into the computer memory chip
industry, U.S. antitrust authorities said on Wednesday.
Infineon became the first chip maker to plead guilty in the
two-year probe, admitting to conspiring with unnamed
manufacturers to fix the prices of dynamic random access
memory, or DRAM, chips from 1999 to 2002, the Justice
Department said.
"There were high-level employees involved," said Hewitt
Pate, head of the department's antitrust division. "This was
not a question of a couple of low-level, bad apples."
Pate said the conspiracy had driven up the price of chips
used in products ranging from personal computers and
servers to cell phones, cameras, and game consoles. The
fine to be paid by Infineon is the third-largest antitrust
penalty ever imposed by the government, Pate said.
As part of the plea agreement, Infineon agreed to
cooperate with the government's ongoing investigation.
Micron Technology Inc., South Korea's Samsung
Electronics Co. Ltd, and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.
have acknowledged involvement in the probe.
Memory prices have swung dramatically over the years,
sometimes for opaque reasons, prompting complaints of
cartel-like activity. Memory chip makers have denied
those allegations.
An Infineon executive said the case had been a "big
distraction," and that the company was glad to put it
in the past.
"We want to go back to the business of business,"
said Robert LeFort, president of Infineon Technologies
North America.
LeFort said the fine would be paid in installments over
the next five years. He said the plea agreement covers
all but four of Infineon's employees.
LeFort said Infineon is also nearing an agreement with
major computer manufacturers that would compensate
them for any alleged overcharges. That settlement is
expected to cost the company no more than $90 million,
LeFort said.
In December, a Micron regional sales manager agreed
to cooperate with investigators and plead guilty to
obstructing the computer-chip investigation by altering
and concealing documents sought by a California
federal grand jury.
The Justice Department has also sought documents
from a former Samsung sales manager, who has
refused to turn over any evidence.
The Justice Department said computer makers directly
affected by the scheme included Dell Inc. , Apple
Computer Inc., International Business Machines Corp.,
Gateway Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Co. and the company
it bought, Compaq Computer Corp.
Micron spokesman David Parker said his company
continues to cooperate with the Justice Department, and
said Micron does not expect to be subject to fines or
penalties. Samsung, in a statement, said it would also
continue to cooperate with the probe.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
http://www.cbs.marketwatch.com
http://www.capitalupdates.com/
http://www.silver-investor.com
http://www.thebulliondesk.com/
http://www.goldismoney.info/index.html
http://www.minersmanual.com/minernews.html
http://www.a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com/euro-vs-dollar.html
http://www.freemarketnews.com/
http://www.investmentrarities.com/
http://www.kuik.com/KH/KH.html
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/home.htm
(In Spanish)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/english.htm
(In English)
Subscription site:
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
http://os2eagle.net/checksum.htm
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
http://www.investmentrarities.com/
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
http://www.blanchardonline.com/
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
http://www.eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
http://www.gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
http://www.kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
http://www.milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
http://www.mocoin.com/
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
http://www.swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
http://www.gata.org/creditcard.html
By GoldMoney:
http://www.GoldMoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
