SEOUL– Prosecutors indicted seven major South Korean steelmakers and 22 of their officials on Wednesday on charges of fixing bidding prices years ago.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office has investigated the seven companies — Hyundai Steel Co., Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., Daehan Still Co., KISCO Corp., YK Steel Corp., Hwan Young Steel Co. and Hankook Still & Mill Co.

The firms allegedly colluded to fix their quotations between 2012 and 2018 to bid on contracts put forward by the state procurement agency by submitting fabricated data, prosecutors said.

The value of the alleged price collusion was estimated at around 6.8 trillion won (US$5.3 billion), the largest price-fixing amount put forward by government agencies, prosecutors said.

Their alleged crime also caused losses of 673.2 billion won in state funds, they said.

The investigation came after the country’s antitrust regulator, the Fair Trade Commission, in August imposed a combined fine of 256.5 billion won on the firms for fixing bidding prices.

Source: Yonhap News Agency