Three South Korean companies have reportedly agreed to pay a total of 260 billion won for their involvement in a bid-rigging scheme supplying fuel to U.S. Forces Korea bases.
The U.S. Justice Department announced on Wednesday that SK Energy, GS Caltex Corporation, and Hanjin Transportation will plead guilty to criminal charges for their role in a conspiracy to fix the price of fuel sold to U.S. military bases in South Korea.
The firms will reportedly pay 154 million dollars in civil damages to the United States and 82 million dollars in criminal fines.
The department said that the conspiracy began around March 2005 and continued until 2016.
Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the department's antitrust division told reporters that the firms fixed or rigged bids for fuel supply to U.S. military bases for about ten years, which led the U.S. Department of Defense to pay substantially more for fuel supply services in South Korea.