“Our men and women in uniform overseas deserve the highest level of support provided by fair and honest contractors. As the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to fight procurement fraud demonstrate, those who put profits over the welfare of members of our military will pay a hefty price.”-Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice

09 September 2012, justice officials in Japan, European Union and United States revealed that the capitalist system of shipping is corrupt, big time!

In Japan, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission raided the offices of at least one dozen shipping companies on 06 September.  Investigators say the companies formed a cartel to monopolize the shipping industry.

The companies raided were Japanese and foreign.  Nippon Yusen, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Kawasaki Kisen were among the top Japanese companies publicly named.

However, the EU’s European Commission is refusing to name names, but they had raided several European companies in conjunction with the Japanese raid.

In the United States, investigations of shipping companies, by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) have been ongoing for a long time.

Since January 2012 convictions, and even guilty pleas, have resulted from investigations into shipping companies ripping off U.S. taxpayers regarding the shipment of supplies to U.S. personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq, all the way to dumping petroleum wastes into the oceans.

Those cases include Greece’s Efploia Shipping, Denmark’s Aquarosa Shipping,  Keoje Marine of Korea (south), Denmark’s Maersk Line Limited, Italy’s Giuseppe Bottiglieri Shipping Company,  Singapore’s Target Ship Management, and Greece’s Ilios Shipping Company.

Currently, the DoJ is working with European and Japanese investigators, trying to break up cartels that have been formed by shipping companies.  The shipping cartels are accused of price fixing, bid rigging, illegal market allocations, monopolization, attempts to monopolize, predatory pricing, tying arrangements and price discrimination.

The investigations include ground shipping, as well as by sea.  Products being shipped by these cartels include paper products, telecommunications, soft drinks, highway and airport paving, life sciences, health care, furniture, coalbed methane gas and baked goods.