Heather S. Tewksbury

Since joining the Department of Justice's antitrust division in 2006, Tewksbury has been in the trenches investigating and prosecuting crimes in the liquid crystal display industry.

LCDs are panels used in desktop and laptop computers and flat screen televisions.

To date, Tewksbury has helped rack up almost $1.4 billion in criminal fines against companies accused of such crimes as price fixing.

Truly unique, she said, is that "high-level executives participated in this conspiracy, set it up and blessed it and had mid-level executives carry it out."

These crimes were widespread and had a "massive effect" on consumers, Tewksbury said.

"In today's world, LCD panels are part of everyone's daily life," she added. "Consumers were paying so much more than they should have been."

That's why it is important that the fines reflect the true impact of this conspiracy, Tewksbury said.

Among the companies she was assigned to investigate was AU Optronics Corp. and five of its executives suspected of participating in a price-fixing conspiracy.

Rather than enter into an agreement with the Justice Department , the executives and the company went to a jury trial last year.

Two of the executives were convicted and each sentenced to three years in prison and a $200,000 fine. Two of the other executives were acquitted. The company was hit with a $500 million fine - matching the largest ever from a company in an antitrust case.

The jury hung on the fifth executive, Steven Leung. Last fall, the antitrust division retried him and, three weeks later, a jury convicted him in a matter of hours. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March. U.S. v. Lin et al., 09- 110 (N.D. Cal., filed June 2010).

In addition, both the Taiwanese-based company and its U.S. subsidiary will be monitored for three years to ensure that they are in compliance with antitrust laws.

"Typically, companies plead guilty," Tewksbury said. "It is very rare for a corporation to go to trial for a criminal price-fixing violation."

- PAT BRODERICK