Samsung officials accused over memory chips

SAN FRANCISCO - Two Samsung Electronics executives, including senior vice-president Kim Il Ung, and a Hynix Semiconductor official were accused by the US of conspiring to fix prices for computer memory chips.

Rha Young Bae, former head of Samsung worldwide sales and marketing, Gary Swanson, senior vice-president of memory sales and marketing at Hynix, and Kim, senior vice-president of Samsung's chip division, were accused of participating in a global conspiracy to artificially boost prices of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips from April 1999 to June 2002, according to a grand jury indictment returned yesterday.

The indictment is part of a four-year federal probe into price fixing in the chip market that has led to claims against four companies and 16 individuals who have been fined US$731 million ($1.1 billion).

- BLOOMBERG