Quinn, the former vice president of marketing at the Korean-owned company, admitted one count of price fixing and bid rigging, relating to a DRAM memory sale to Sun Microsystems Inc in December 2001.
He will also pay a criminal fine of $250,000, the DoJ said.
Today’s action sends a clear message — those who engage in price-fixing schemes will be held accountable for their illegal conduct, Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general at the DoJ’s Antitrust Division, said in a statement.
Justice’s DRAM investigation tally so far is 13 people charged, and $731m in fines.
Back in March, three Koreans from Samsung Electronics Company Ltd pleaded guilty to similar charges, paid $250,000 each in fines, and were to save jail time between seven and eight months each.
Four former Hynix Semiconductor executives have previously agreed to guilty pleas, $250,000 fines and jail time up to eight months. Four Infineon executives served up to six months each after pleading guilt to similar charges in 2004.
Samsung itself paid $300m in criminal fines last year after pleading guilty.
In the case of Quinn, Justice alleged that he was involved in the price-fixing cartel between April 2001 and June 2002.
DRAM buyers including Dell, HP, Compaq, IBM, Apple, Gateway and Sun have been named in the Quinn complaint and other complaints.
While the DRAM cartel has been blown wide open for years, there are several investigations and civil lawsuits ongoing.
Most recently, Sun and Unisys Corp teamed up to sue the entire cartel. Companies named included Hynix, Mosel Vitelic, Nanya, Winbond, Elpida, Mitsubishi, Infineon, and their respective US subsidiaries. Samsung was named as a co-conspirator.
