Tag / United States Department of Justice

by Mike Poverello

Freight companies to pay $18.9 million for price-fixing

BackhanderTwo Japanese freight forwarders have agreed to pay a total of $18.9 million in criminal fines for their role in a price-fixing scheme, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Over the course of at least five years, Yusen Logistics Co. and “K” Line Logistics Ltd. conspired to fix freight forwarding fees, including security fees and fuel surcharges, on air cargo shipments from Japan to the U.S., the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. The two are just the latest in a string of 16 freight forwarding companies that have agreed to plead guilty to price-fixing and pay criminal fines totaling more than $120 million.

“Consumers were forced to pay higher prices on the goods they buy every day as a result of the noncompetitive and collusive service fees charged by these companies,” Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division said in a statement. “Prosecuting these kinds of global, price-fixing conspiracies continues to be a top priority of the Antitrust Division.”

The DOJ seems to have been successful in pursuing that priority. In the 2012 fiscal year, the antitrust division collected a record-breaking $1.35 billion in criminal fines, nearly 60 percent of which came from Asia-Pacific-based companies. Source: Insidecounsel.com

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by Mike Poverello

Maersk pays US government $32m

Logo of A.P. Moller – Maersk Group

Maersk Line has agreed to pay an out of court settlement of US$31.9 million to the US government to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims for inflated shipping costs incurred during the transport of containerised cargo to support US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The government claimed Maersk was allegedly billing in excess of the contractual rate to maintain the operation of refrigerated containers holding perishable cargo at a terminal in Karachi, Pakistan, and at US military bases in Afghanistan; billing excessive detention charges (or late fees) by failing to account for cargo transit times and a contractual grace period; billing for container delivery delays improperly attributed to the US government; billing for container GPS tracking and security services that were not provided, or only partially provided; and failing to credit the US government for rebates of container storage fees received by Maersk’s subcontractor at a Kuwaiti port.

Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice said: “Our men and women in uniform overseas deserve the highest level of support provided by fair and honest contractors. As the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to fight procurement fraud demonstrate, those who put profits over the welfare of members of our military will pay a hefty price.”

In 2009, APL was fined $26.3 million by the US Department of Justice, and Agility is still fighting a claim for overcharging in 2010.

Makes you wonder – did they declare the correct cargo information on their manifest? I guess it really does not matter since the cargo was destined for Afghanistan and Pakistan in any event. Don’t believe these countries require advance manifest reporting just yet.

Source: ifw-net.com

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