Mitsubishi Corp. has agreed to pay a $134 million fine for its role in an international price-fixing cartel for graphite electrodes, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.
The fine, approved by U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz in Philadelphia, is the second-highest imposed in a graphite electrodes investigation and the fourth-largest ever imposed in an antitrust case, the department said.
A federal district court jury convicted the giant trading house in February of aiding and abetting a conspiracy among major graphite electrodes makers to fix prices in the United States and elsewhere.
Mitsubishi began the practice at least as early as March 1992 and continued until at least June 1997, according to the indictment.