They are charged with being co-conspirators in a price-fixing scheme between April 2001 and June 2002 A U.S. grand jury has indicted three former semiconductor vendor executives, two from Samsung Electronics Ltd. and one from Hynix Semiconductor America Inc., for their alleged roles in a “global conspiracy” to fix DRAM (dynamic RAM) prices, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said.Indicted Wednesday were Il Ung Kim, former vice president of marketing for Samsung’s memory division; Young Bae Rha, former vice president of sales and market for Samsung’s memory division; and Gary Swanson, former senior vice president of memory sales and marketing for Hynix America.They are charged with being co-conspirators in a The three are each charged with participating in the conspiracy to suppress competition in violation of the U.S. Sherman Antitrust Act. The maximum penalty for the conviction of a Sherman Act violation occurring before June 22, 2004, is three years in prison and a U.S. $350,000 fine.The maximum fines may be increased in certain situations.Including Wednesday’s charges, four companies and 16 individuals have been charged in the DOJ DRAM price-fixing probe. The investigation has resulted in US$731 million in fines, the second highest total obtained by the DOJ in a criminal antitrust investigation aimed at one industry. DRAM is the most commonly used semiconductor memory product, used in a variety of devices including PCs, laptops, printers, hard disk drives, PDAs (personal digital assistants), mobile phones, digital cameras and telecommunication hubs and routers. There were about $7.7 billion in U.S. DRAM sales in 2004, according to the DOJ.Three foreign-based Samsung executives pleaded guilty to the DRAM price-fixing conspiracy in March and August. They agreed to serve prison terms ranging from seven to eight months and to each pay a $250,000 fine. In September, a fourth Samsung executive agreed to plead guilty to the DRAM price-fixing conspiracy.In addition, four Hynix Semiconductor Inc. executives were charged with participating in the DRAM price-fixing conspiracy and agreed to plead guilty and serve jail terms ranging from five to eight months and to each pay a $250,000 fine. In December 2004, four executives of Infineon Technologies AG pleaded guilty to the DRAM price-fixing conspiracy. The Infineon employees served jail terms ranging from four to six months, and each paid a $250,000 fine. Four companies have been charged with price-fixing in the DRAM investigation. Samsung pleaded guilty to the price-fixing conspiracy and was sentenced to pay a $300 million fine in November 2005. Hynix, the world’s second largest DRAM manufacturer, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $185 million fine in May 2005. Japanese manufacturer Elpida Memory pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay an $84 million fine in March. German manufacturer Infineon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $160 million fine in October 2004. Technology Industry