Two South Korean Oil Firms To Pay $75Mln Fines In Pentagon Fuel Fraud Case - Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st March, 2019) Two oil companies have pleaded guilty and will pay $75 million in fines for participating in a bid-rigging conspiracy to set prices supplying fuel to the US armed forces in South Korea, the Department of Justice said in a news release on Wednesday.

"South Korea-based companies Hyundai Oilbank and S-Oil Corporation have agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay a total of approximately $75 million in criminal fines for their involvement in a bid-rigging conspiracy," the Justice Department said.

The conspiracy targeted contracts to supply fuel to US Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force bases in South Korea and Hyundai Oilbank and S-Oil have agreed to plead guilty to an antitrust charge contained in a superseding indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday, the Justice Department said.

"The superseding indictment also charges seven individual defendants - associates, managers and executives of companies that conspired to rig bids for fuel supply contracts - for participating in this bid-rigging conspiracy and... to defraud the US government," the release said.

In separate civil resolutions, Hyundai Oilbank and S-Oil have agreed to pay a total of approximately $52 million to the United States for civil antitrust and False Claims Act violations related to the bid-rigging conspiracy, the release added.