 Eight major corporations raided over biggest ever bid-rigging for bridges The Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office on May 23 searched eight firms, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, based on criminal complaints filed earlier in the day by the Fair Trade Commission against them on suspicion of violating the Antimonopoly Law in bid-rigging over building steel bridges under government contracts. The suspected bridge construction projects are valued at 350 billion yen, the biggest ever case of bid-rigging. The prosecutors searched 49 related corporations. The FTC's complaint covered 166 bridge constructions for two years up to FY 2004, in which the eight caretaker companies predetermined a bid winner called the "champion" and informed it of the bidding price by phone. FTC Second Special Investigation Division Chief Sugiura Soichiro said, "The rigging seems to have continued for many years and is flagrantly illegal." Akahata of May 24 reported that the accused corporations are influential members of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren). Akahata said that the case means that these influential corporations used their cozy relations with government ministries to keep bidding prices high so that enormous profits from taxes are shared among bidders. The cost of rigging is estimated to be 5-10 percent of the amount of the contract. In the past, the JBF obstructed the Antimonopoly Law from being revised to include higher surcharges against bid-rigging. - Akahata, May 24, 2005 |