U.S. Department
of Justice
Indictment
| |
SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION
The Grand Jury charges as follows: 1. GUNTER MONN is hereby indicted and made a defendant on the charge stated below. 2. Beginning in or about 1995 and continuing into 2001, the exact dates being unknown to the Grand Jury, coconspirators of the defendant entered into and engaged in a combination and conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing the prices of rubber chemicals to be sold in the United States and elsewhere. The defendant joined the conspiracy in or about January 1997. The combination and conspiracy engaged in by the defendant and his coconspirators was an unreasonable restraint of interstate and foreign trade and commerce in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. § 1). 3. The charged combination and conspiracy consisted of a continuing agreement, understanding, and concert of action among the defendant and his coconspirators, the substantial terms of which were to agree to fix and maintain prices and to coordinate price increases for rubber chemicals to be sold in the United States and elsewhere. II. MEANS AND METHODS OF THE CONSPIRACY 4. For the purpose of forming and carrying out the charged combination and conspiracy, the defendant and his coconspirators did those things that they combined and conspired to do, including, among other things:
III. 5. Defendant GUNTER MONN is a resident and citizen of German. During part of the period covered by this Indictment, defendant GUNTER MONN was the Head of Marketing for Rubber Products at Bayer AG ("Bayer"). During the period covered by this Indictment, Bayer was a German company that engaged in the business of producing rubber chemicals and selling rubber chemicals to customers in the United States and elsewhere. 6. Various corporations and individuals, not made defendants in this Indictment, participated as coconspirators in the offense charged in this Indictment and performed acts and made statements in furtherance of it. 7. Whenever in this Indictment reference is made to any act, deed, or transaction of any corporation, the allegation means that the corporation engaged in the act, deed, or transaction by or through its officers, directors, employees, agents, or other representatives while they were actively engaged in the management, direction, control, or transaction of its business or affairs. 8. Rubber Chemicals are a group of additives used during the processing of rubber to improve the elasticity, strength, and durability of a variety of rubber products, including automotive tires, hoses and belts, wire and cable insulation, and footwear. Rubber chemicals include accelerators, antidegradants, and antioxidants. 9. During the period covered by this Indictment, the defendant and his coconspirators sold and distributed rubber chemicals, and caused the sale and distribution of rubber chemicals, in a continuous and uninterrupted flow of interstate and foreign trade and commerce to customers located in states or countries other than the states or countries in which the defendants and their coconspirators produced rubber chemicals. In addition, quantities of rubber chemicals as well as payments for rubber chemicals traveled in interstate and foreign commerce. 10. The business activities of the defendant and his coconspirators that are the subject of this Indictment were within the flow of, and substantially affected, interstate and foreign trade and commerce. V. 11. The combination and conspiracy charged in this Indictment was carried out, in part, in the Northern District of California within the five years preceding the return of this Indictment. ALL IN VIOLATION OF TITLE 15, UNITED STATES CODE, SECTION 1. A TRUE BILL Dated: Aug. 10, 2005 ___/s/ Grand Jury Foreperson________
|