Six international freight forwarders have agreed to plead guilty and to pay criminal fines totaling $50.27m for their roles in conspiring to fix fees and charges for international air cargo shipments, the Justice Department said.
According to charges filed separately in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, each of the six companies engaged in one or more separate conspiracies to impose certain charges or fees on customers purchasing international freight forwarding services for cargo freight destined for air shipment to the United States from 2002 to 2007.
Under the plea agreements, which are subject to court approval, the six companies have agreed to pay the following criminal fines:
• BAX Global Inc., Toledo, Ohio (acquired in 2006 and merged into Schenker) $19.75m. • Panalpina World Transport (Holding) Ltd., based in Basel, Switzerland, $11.95m. • Kuehne + Nagel International AG, based in Schindellegi, Switzerland, $9.87m. • EGL Inc. of Houston (which was acquired in 2007 by the UK-based CEVA Group) $4.49m. • Schenker AG, based in Essen, Germany, $3.54m. • Geologistics International Management (Bermuda) Ltd., Hamilton, Bermuda, $687,960.
Each company has also agreed to cooperate with the department's ongoing antitrust investigation.
