US/South Korea: Three firms to plead guilty to rigging price of US military base fuel

Three South Korean companies will plead guilty to criminal charges and pay US$236 million for their role in a conspiracy to fix the price of fuel sold to US military bases in South Korea, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced on Wednesday, November 14.

SK Energy; GS Caltex, 50% owned by Chevron; and Hanjin Transportation agreed to pay US$154 million in civil damages to the United States and US$82 million in criminal fines, the department said.

The settlement was part of a larger investigation involving other companies, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said.

The three companies “and other co-conspirators rigged bids and fixed prices for fuel supply contracts issued by the US military in this strategically critical region for over a decade,” Delrahim said.

The conspiracy began around March 2005 and continued until 2016, with South Korean petroleum and refinery companies and their agents working to suppress competition during the bidding process for US military fuel contracts, the DOJ stated