A semiconductor materials company and its former and current CEOs, among others, have been brought to trial on charges of colluding with competitors in a scheme worth about 350 billion won.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office asset recovery division (headed by So Jeong-su, Director General) said on the 13th it indicted without detention the corporation of semiconductor materials company A, which is listed on the KOSDAQ market, and five current and former executives and employees, including former and current CEOs, on charges of violating the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act.
Company A manufactures and supplies bonding wire and solder balls, which are semiconductor materials. As expenses for raw materials such as gold rose and competition in the market intensified, hurting profitability, Company A is suspected of agreeing with competitors to raise prices from April 2020 to December last year or jointly responding to clients' requests for price cuts and agreeing to freeze prices.
The total scale of the collusion is 347.6 billion won, including 306.9 billion won for bonding wire from April 2020 to December last year, and 40.7 billion won for solder balls from May 2024 to December last year.
Bonding wire is an ultrafine metal wire that electrically connects a semiconductor chip and a substrate. A solder ball is a tiny spherical metal component that connects a semiconductor chip and a substrate both electrically and physically.
Prosecutors sought a preservation order for forfeiture against real estate owned by Company A to secure 1.22 billion won in criminal proceeds confirmed to have been obtained by the company. The court granted the request on the 31st of last month. It is the first case in which criminal proceeds were preserved for forfeiture on the premise of price collusion under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act.
Prosecutors uncovered this collusion case through a direct investigation. After asking the Korea Fair Trade Commission to file a complaint and receiving it, prosecutors indicted Company A.
A prosecution official said, "After Oct. 2, prosecutorial investigations into collusion cases—where the prosecution has built long-term investigative capacity and know-how—have become fundamentally impossible," adding, "We will do our utmost until the end by rigorously maintaining the indictment and recovering criminal proceeds to eradicate collusion."