Friday, October 14 2005 17:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips for computers and other gadgets, will pay a $300 million fine to settle accusations it secretly conspired with industry rivals to fix prices and cheat customers, federal officials said here.

Samsung's guilty plea to a felony price-fixing charge caps a three-year investigation by the Justice Department into makers of the chips, a $7.7 billion market in the United States (US). Two of Samsung's leading rivals earlier paid fines totaling $345 million and pleaded guilty to involvement in a scheme the Government said boosted prices consumers paid for computers between 1999 and 2002.

The Justice Department's acting antitrust chief, Thomas O. Barnett, said seven Samsung employees are not legally protected from further prosecution under the plea agreement, an indication they may individually face criminal charges.

"That's a decision for us to make moving forward," Barnett said. He added that prosecuting executives in price-fixing cases, not just the companies where they work, is an important deterrent against similar crimes.

The guilty plea by South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and its US subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc., was announced at Justice Department headquarters. The court papers are expected to be filed within 30 days in US District Court in San Francisco.

Samsung said in a statement the company 'strongly supports fair competition and ethical practices and forbids anticompetitive behavior.' A spokeswoman, Chris Goodhart, declined to identify the seven employees or say whether they still worked for Samsung.