Will De Beers Plead Guilty to Price-Fixing Charges?

On July 13, a De Beers legal team will appear in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on antitrust charges involving alleged price-fixing of industrial diamonds.

The diamond miner and General Electric allegedly conspired to fix prices in the mid-90s, and while GE saw the case against it dropped, De Beers’ case was not settled and its ban on entering the US has continued.

As the court date approaches, speculation is mounting as to how De Beers will plead.

Company officials are refusing to comment, largely due to reasons of sub judice. However, many believe De Beers will plead guilty, risking a heavy punishment, just to get the matter over with.

That would then allow it to do business directly in the market that buys more than 50 percent of the world’s gem quality diamonds and finally remove the threat of arrest that has hung over De Beers’ executives for many years.

Observers point out that the presiding judge is George C. Smith, the same judge who threw out the government’s charges against GE 10 years ago. And because of that intriguing factor, some industry-watchers believe that De Beers will also plead not guilty – but that approach would lead to a trial and who knows when that would end.

If De Beers does plead guilty the court might fine it, as many believe, but there is always the possibility of other penalties as well.

Most importantly for the company, it looks like the moment when it can do business in the United States directly is approaching since nobody believes the verdict will include a ban on De Beers from trading in the US.