LG, Chunghwa Picture Tubes execs to serve jail time for LCD price fixing conspiracy

LG and Chunghwa Picture Tubes already confessed to being involved in a scandalous LCD price fixing conspiracy, and now the US Department of Justice is laying down the hammer on four of the dirty-handed executives. Chang Suk Chung (LG), Chieng-Hon "Frank" Lin (Chunghwa), Chih-Chun "C.C." Liu (Chunghwa) and Hsueh-Lung "Brian" Lee (Chunghwa) have all entered plea agreements which will see them serving a "term of imprisonment" as well as paying a criminal fine and assisting the US government in its ongoing TFT-LCD investigation. 'Course, those pleas must all be approved by the court, but it's pretty safe to say these fellows will be spending a least a moment or two behind steel bars. Fun, fun.

[Via DigitalTrends]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2009 5:15AM]

Were those names, or the sounds their metal cups will be making as they rake them across the cell bars?

[Adamgs Posted Jan 20th 2009 5:19AM]

All these price fixing/fraud cases get hit hard with the law...it seems to literally just rob the people directly you get a lesser punishment.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2009 9:34AM]

Your get a lesser punishment due to the following two reasons:

1. You have about 36,500 days, if you can live to see your 8th Christmas tree of the next century. And in all these days, one third of the time you're at sleep, so you have only about 24,300 full days to live. And in all these days, you have to eat, to puke, to pee, to poo, to walk, to sit, to listen, to talk, to learn, to forget, to play, to work, to f**k or to get f**ked, to grow from infant to youngster, and to grow from middle-aged sorry ass to a sick old bastard, and you have to go to engadget to post your brilliant comments. Excluded all these times you're unable to carry out a robbery, I think it's pretty safe to say that you have only 3,000 full days to do your art, and you must have balls and the physique advantages over the victim unless you want to go "armed" and get a harder penalty and shorter career. So, out of the 3,000 days, if you're a pro not a robber of passion, you have to wait for chances to come and you have to make out plans, so if all went well and you're not get IDed, busted, wasting time hid out, on the run, doing time.... you can get about 100 jobs done at best in your entire career. And let's go back to see the price fixing - mass robbery, apparently, you're able to carry out this art, at any age between 18 - 80 if you're determined to do so. While you're eating, puking, peeing....... f**king or getting f**ked, even posting comments here, you're robbing people, hundreds of thousands of people. When you're at sleep, your underpaid fellow employees on the other side of the globe are helping you continue robbing people 24/7.

2. It'll take UFO-crushed-onto-your-house chances for people to get robbed in their own country, by foreigners, in a 3rd kind fashion. However, the good people at the Headquarters of LG and 中華映管 sitting behind their huge desks, utilizing their abilities to fix pricing, and Voilà! They robbed the planet! And yes, even you don't want to admit it, United States is part of the planet too.

[ahdok Posted Jan 20th 2009 5:30AM]

I guess when LG said that LCD panel prices had reached a bottom, they knew what they were talking about. :)

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2009 5:45AM]

Does this mean LCDs will get cheaper?
Or does this mean OLED will not be cheap till a similar scandal occurs?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2009 8:00AM]

It results in exactly nothing of the sort. Whatever price fixing that occurred happened a long time ago and the effects are long gone.

[Hydraulics Posted Jan 20th 2009 6:47AM]

"So....what brings you to jail?"
"Double homicide, and yourself?"
"uhh..Price Fixing"

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2009 8:35AM]

Hi. I'm big Bob.

[aznofazns Posted Jan 20th 2009 2:12PM]

are you ready for your cockmeat sandwich?

[telepheedian Posted Jan 20th 2009 8:36AM]

Hours before, for those that didn't see it:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/19/lg-display-ceo-says-that-lcd-panel-prices-have-reached-a-bottom/

[PlatinumSkeet Posted Jan 20th 2009 1:51PM]

I'm so surprised they didn't link these articles...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2009 9:46AM]

ok.. bangget

[sporkinum Posted Jan 20th 2009 10:10AM]

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2009 10:39AM]

NICE! I can't believe nobody else got that.......
On a side note, how can LG be qualified to state that LCD panels just hit bottom when they were fixing the price, no matter how long ago they were doing it? And why does it still cost a fortune for 46-55+ inch LCD panels if they've hit a bottom on price? (yes I'm staring at you Sony, Samsung, LG)

[Wwhat Posted Jan 20th 2009 7:14PM]

Do they even use bars in minimum security prisons?

[Wwhat Posted Jan 20th 2009 7:15PM]

I mean metal bars, not the normal cocktail bars.

[Wwhat Posted Jan 20th 2009 7:20PM]

I used the words cocktail in a comment on the subject of prisons on the internet, my bad but I'm not going to punish myself by reading replies, sigh.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 22nd 2009 12:24PM]

Glad to see Chunghwa Picture Tubes getting rapped as they took tax payers money here in Scotland to build a brand new factory and before the factory opened with the planned 1000 odd jods they promised, they moved out of the UK.