The prosecution has indicted 52 people for allegedly fixing flour, sugar and electricity prices.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office announced the indictments Monday along with the results of the price-fixing investigation it launched in September, which focused on daily necessities. 

Twenty of those indicted are officials, including chairs or presidents, of the six flour mills that account for 75 percent of the nation’s flour market, including the Daehan Flour Mills Corporation, Sajo DongA One and Samyang Corporation. 

They are suspected of prearranging the timing and extent of flour price fluctuations for over three years since 2020, bringing in nearly six trillion won, or some four billion U.S. dollars, in illicit gains. 

Prosecutors also suspect that the three sugar manufacturers that occupy more than 90 percent of the market, including CJ Cheiljedang, amassed profits totaling some three trillion won by colluding to fix prices. 

​Prosecutors also indicted four figures with physical detention and 15 without physical detention on allegations that ten companies, including Hyosung, Hyundai and LS, pocketed more than 160 billion won in undue profits by fixing bid prices during the Korea Electric Power Corporation’s bidding process.