-Caveat Lector-
> CNI News---20/Aug/99 12:53
> Second ex-Roche exec to be jailed in US vitamins probe
> LONDON (CNI)--A second former senior executive of Swiss pharmaceutical
> group Hoffmann-La Roche is to serve a prison sentence and pay a large fine
> for his involvement in a vitamin price fixing cartel, CNI learned on
> Friday.
> The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced that Roland Bronnimann,
> who was formerly president of Roche's vitamins and fine chemicals division
> has agreed to plead guilty and will serve a five month jail sentence and
> be fined $150 000 (Euro142 000) over his role in the cartel which spanned
> most of the 1990s.
> The DoJ filed Thursday a one-count criminal charge in the US District
> Court, Dallas, Texas against Swiss citizen Bronnimann whose former
> colleague Kuno Sommer, ex director of worldwide marketing for vitamins and
> fine chemicals, was fined $100 000 and sentenced in July to a four month
> jail term.
> Bronnimann was charged with conspiring with unnamed co-conspirators to
> fix, raise and maintain prices and allocate market shares in vitamins sold
> in the US and elsewhere.
> The case also charges Bronnimann for involvement in allocating contracts
> and rigging bids related to vitamin premixes for foods in the US.
> Bronnimann's involvement in the cartel, along with Germany's BASF and
> France's Rhone-Poulenc, lasted from spring 1991 to February this year,
> said the DoJ.
> Bronnimann has been charged with violating Section One of the Sherman Act,
> which carries a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment and a $350 000
> fine for individuals, although the DOJ noted that the fine can be
> increased if the gain or loss suffered by victims is greater than the
> statutory maximum.
> Gary Spratling, the DoJ anti-trust division's deputy assistant attorney
> general for criminal enforcement, said: "Bronnimann knew of, approved, and
> participated in key aspects of Hoffman-La Roche's operation in the
> vitamins cartel. As a member of Hoffmann-La Roche's executive committee at
> the time of his involvement, Bronnimann put the full weight of legitimacy
> behind the company's involvement in the most pervasive international
> cartel ever uncovered."
> Roche was fined $500m in a settlement reached with the DoJ in May over
> the vitamins price fixing case. The company took the charge as an
> exceptional item in its first half results to 30 June, which it reported
> on Thursday, along with provisions of SF995m ($656m/Euro621m) against
> civil lawsuits currently underway over the matter. A spokesman said the
> company may make further provisions against its H2 results.
> Both Bronnimann and Sommer left Roche in May when the company settled with
> the DoJ. Roche has an internal investigation into its vitamins division
> underway following the DoJ probe, which took evidence from some middle
> managers in return for non-prosecution. A spokesman previously told CNI
> that DoJ exemption from prosecution would not prevent the company probing
> the division's affairs.
>
> CNI News---20/Aug/99 18:50
> Roche completes probe of vitamins division
> LONDON (CNI)--Swiss group Roche told CNI on Friday no further sackings
> would result from its just-completed internal probe into its vitamins and
> fine chemicals division following the scandal of the vitamins price-fixing
> uncovered by US legal authorities.
> Roche has already dismissed two top managers over their involvement in the
> vitamins cartel - Bruno Sommer and Roland Bronnimann - and both are faced
> with fines and imprisonment following investigations by the US Department
> of Justice (DoJ). Sommer was sentenced to a four month jail term with
> $100 000 (Euro95 000) in fines, and the DoJ has just announced that
> Bronnimann is to be imprisoned for five months and be fined $150 000.
> A spokesman for Roche repeated that the group was "very sorry for what
> happened in the price fixing" and that the group's internal investigation,
> which was completed in the last few days, would not result in an overhaul,
> restructuring or culling in the division.
> He said it had given the group a better understanding of what happened in
> the division during the price-fixing cartel. Roche now "had a clearer
> picture of the involvement of people, or not", said the spokesman. He
> added that the investigation was an internal matter and declined to
> comment further.
> The group is now implementing a "compliance programme", which the
> spokesman said will instruct employees about proper behaviour in
> competition.
> Roche is also one of the companies co-operating with the European
> Commission (EC) in another vitamin price fixing investigation. While it
> made a significant provision of SF995m ($656m/Euro621m) in its half year
> results pending the outcome of civil lawsuits over vitamin price fixing,
> the spokesman said that no provision were planned with respect to the EC
> probe.
>
>
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