Martinair exec latest to face jail over price-fixing

A Dutch executive with Martinair will serve eight months in jail and pay a US$20,000 fine for his part in an international air cargo price-fixing conspiracy,the US Justice Department said.

Franciscus Johannes de Jong, aka Frank de Jong, formerly the vice president of cargo sales in Europe, agreed to plead guilty to fixing air cargo rates as part of a global conspiracy that ran from 2002 to 2006, the Justice Department said.

De Jong and his co-conspirators “engaged in a conspiracy to fix the cargo rates charged to customers for international air shipments, including to and from the United States,” the department said.

Fifteen airlines and four executives have agreed to plead guilty to price fixing charges with the other executives also sentenced to jail.