Top executive admits chip price fixing

A FORMER executive ex-vice president of sales for Elpida Memory has pleaded guilty in the global Justice Department DRAM price-fixing probe.

James Sogas will serve a sevenmonth prison term and pay a $250,000 fine if the plea deal is approved by a federal judge.

Sogas admitted conspiring with others in the industry to fix the price of DRAM chips from April 2001 to June 2002. The price of memory increased by 95 percent in less than two months in late 2001 after sneaky deals between executives at Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor and Infineon.

Sogas was charged with discussing with competitors the prices of DRAM and agreeing with competitors to coordinate bids submitted to Sun. He has been lecturing people at various US universities about why it is not a good idea to do what he did. µ

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