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Former Morgan Crucible Chief Norris Found Guilty of Conspiracy in U.S.
July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Crucible Co.’s former chief executive officer, Ian Norris, was found guilty in the U.S. of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with a scheme to fix prices for carbon and graphite products.
A federal jury in Philadelphia today acquitted Norris, 67, of trying to influence others’ grand jury testimony and of intent to induce the destruction of records. Jurors previously had declared at an impasse during about 18 hours of deliberations.
Norris was extradited from the U.K. this year, the first foreign defendant sent to the U.S. to face charges arising from a criminal antitrust investigation, Justice Department officials said in March. He was accused of ordering subordinates to destroy files describing secret talks among European makers of carbon and graphite products about fixing prices in a cartel lasting more than a decade.
Norris was part of a “long-term scheme” to stifle an investigation of the cartel, federal prosecutor Lucy McClain told jurors during the trial that began July 12. Defense lawyer Christopher Curran claimed that Norris didn’t thwart the probe and never illegally ordered document-shredding.
Norris will be sentenced on Nov. 2. The conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the Justice Department.
‘Law-Abiding Conduct’
“Today’s verdict holds Norris accountable for his actions and sends a message that corporate leaders must promote a culture of law-abiding conduct within their companies,” Christine Varney, assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s Antitrust Division, said in an e-mailed statement.
Morgan Crucible, founded in 1856 and based in Windsor, England, makes body armor, carbon items, ceramics, bearings and other products for the medical, automotive, aerospace and telecommunications industries. The company reported sales last year of 942.6 million pounds ($1.47 billion).
Norris retired from Morgan Crucible in 2002 after battling prostate cancer and was indicted the following year. The cartel, which began in Europe, spread to the U.S. in 1989 and continued until 2000, according to a U.S. indictment.
U.K. authorities refused to allow Norris to be extradited on price-fixing charges because such activities weren’t a crime in Britain at the time. U.S. prosecutors then pressed conspiracy and obstruction counts and a London-based court backed the extradition in February.
Fines Paid
The cartel, which included companies such as Germany’s SGL Carbon AG, France’s Carbone Lorraine SA and Austria’s Hoffmann & Co., at one time controlled about 93 percent of the European market for carbon products used in manufacturing and steelmaking. The companies paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and lawsuit settlements to resolve claims by government regulators and customers.
The former top executives of both SGL and UCAR International Inc. pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges tied to price fixing. Robert Koehler, SGL’s chairman, was fined $10 million while UCAR Chairman Robert Krass was sentenced to a 17-month prison term.
Morgan Crucible fell 5.2 pence, or 2.3 percent, to 219.3 pence in London trading. The shares have more than doubled in the past year.
The case is U.S. v. Ian Norris, 03-CR-632, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia.)
To contact the reporters on this story: Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware, at pmilford@bloomberg.net; Chris Yasiejko in Philadelphia at yasiejko@gmail.com.
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