* AU fined $500 million for LCD price fixing in U.S.
* AU said will appeal and make another $223 mln provision in
Q3
* Shares of AU up 5 pct in Taipei on Friday
TAIPEI/SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Taiwan-based AU
Optronics Corp was fined $500 million by a U.S. judge
for price fixing in the market for liquid crystal display
panels, but the company's shares jumped as much as 5 percent
early on Friday amid relief the fine wasn't larger.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco also
handed down three-year prison sentences to two individual
defendants on Thursday.
A jury convicted the company and two AU executives,
Hsuan-Bin Chen, 60, and Hui Hsiung, 58, in March. Former AU
Chief Executive L.J. Chen, who remains a top executive at the
company, was acquitted at the trial.
AU was charged as part of an investigation into an alleged
price-fixing cartel between 1999 and 2006. Several other
companies, including LG Electronics Inc, have
pleaded guilty in the LCD probe.
U.S. prosecutors had accused company executives of meeting
more than 60 times at luxury hotels to fix prices of LCD panels,
saying the conspiracy cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.
Criminal trials against publicly traded companies are rare,
and AU has said it would appeal its conviction. At the trial,
AU's lawyers asserted that the company "competed fiercely" and
that the mere exchange of information between companies was not
illegal.
AU, which has a market capitalisation of about $3.3 billion,
had argued it should be fined no more than $285 million. U.S.
antitrust prosecutors had sought $1 billion.
On Friday, AU shares jumped as much as 5 percent, versus a
broader market's 0.49 percent gain, because the fine was
less than some investors had expected.
The Taiwanese company said in a statement that it will make
an extra provision of $223 million this quarter.
"This was a documented, far-reaching, clearly illegal
conspiracy to fix pricing," Judge Illston said at Thursday's
hearing. She said she took into consideration fines imposed on
other companies in the investigation, and the fact that AU had
already incurred heavy costs in money and time for this trial.
"That's why I find that $500 million is adequate but not
excessive," she said.
Rival LG Electronics agreed to pay a $400 million fine in
2008, while Samsung Electronics Co Ltd cut an early
deal to avoid prosecution.
AU was the sole Asian LCD maker to plead not guilty.
"$500 million is not enough to deter cartels like this from
forming," Department of Justice antitrust division trial
attorney Heather Tewksbury said.
In urging a larger penalty, Tewksbury said LG Electronics
had been fined $400 million even after providing substantial
assistance to authorities.
"AU Optronics is getting a 50 percent discount and that's an
inequitable result," she said.
The judge also ordered three years of probation for the
company, including implementation of a compliance and ethics
program. The company was ordered to pay the fine over three
years.
Both Chen and Hsiung declined to make personal remarks when
asked by Judge Illston. They sat motionless as she sentenced
them to three years in prison for making "poor choices and bad
judgment."
"The Antitrust Division will continue to pursue vigorously
international cartels that target American consumers and rob
them of their hard-earned money," Scott D. Hammond, Deputy
Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division's criminal
enforcement program, said in a statement.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of
California, is United States v. Hsuan Bin Chen et al,
09-cr-00110.
