Mitsubishi Materials Unit fined over data manipulation

February 5, 2019

Tokyo--Tokyo Summary Court ordered auto parts maker Diamet Corp. on Tuesday to pay 50 million yen in fine for manipulating product quality data in violation of the unfair competition prevention law.

The court also slapped a fine of 2 million yen on Mutsumi Yasutake, 60, former president of Diamet, a subsidiary of major Japanese nonferrous metal maker Mitsubishi Materials Corp. <5711>.

The manipulation is a malicious act that undermines trust in the manufacturing industry, Judge Yujiro Nakatani said in imposing the fines as demanded by public prosecutors.

The data doctoring continued for about one year and sales of the products affected by the act totaled some 117 million yen, the judge noted.

"Yasutake bears heavy criminal responsibility for tolerating the misconduct as the leader (of Diamet)," he said.

Between January 2017 and January 2018, Diamet, based in Niigata, central Japan, doctored 79 inspection certificates for products, including engine and oil pump parts, to show fraudulently that they met the safety standards required by its client companies, according to the ruling.

In the scandal, public prosecutors indicted two other Mitsubishi Materials group companies--Mitsubishi Aluminum Co. and Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd.--in September 2018, along with Hiroaki Murata, 62, former president of Mitsubishi Cable.

Rulings on them are expected to be handed down later this week, sources familiar with the situation said. Jiji Press