Diamond producer De Beers has pleaded guilty to charges under American anti-trust laws in a settlement that may allow the company to resume business in the United States.
Lawyers for De Beers’ Swiss subsidiary De Beers Centenary entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, on July 13. De Beers Centenary had been charged in 1994 under the Sherman Act, which prohibits price-fixing. The conviction carries a US$10-million fine, the maximum penalty that could have been imposed under the law as it stood at the time the charges were laid.
The U.S. Department of Justice had alleged that De Beers and General Electric had colluded to fix the price of industrial diamonds in the U.S. The charges against General Electric were subsequently dropped. The court heard an admission from De Beers Centenary that its management had exchanged pricing information with General Electric.
Officers of De Beers, a subsidiary of Anglo American (AAUK-Q), had been prevented from travelling to the U.S. by warrants for their arrest. Those warrants are expected to be lifted now that the Ohio anti-trust case has been settled.
It was not announced whether other anti-trust complaints made by the U.S. government against De Beers over its historical control of the diamond market would now be dropped.
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