ALLEGED TIMELINE OF EVENTS
US prosecutors said in an unsealed indictment that several of the alleged conspirators had begun discussing the scheme as early as March 2019.
On or about Nov 14 that year, CIMC, Dong Fang, CXIC and another unnamed co-conspirator had met at CIMC’s headquarters in China to restrict their output of standard dry shipping containers.
The goal of this was to raise the price of standard dry shipping containers, said the prosecution.
A week later, an executive of Singamas emailed Mr Teo stating that Dong Fang’s general manager, Mr Li, had called for all six factories to meet.
On Dec 5 that year, the Singamas executive updated Mr Teo that he had gone for the meeting two days earlier.
He stated that the companies discussed limiting the number of shifts and hours that each production line for standard dry containers could run per day, building no additional new production line, installing closed-circuit television (CCTV), and having each factory submit a deposit that would be deducted if anyone broke the agreement.
He also told Mr Teo that he had reminded the others “not to be high profile”.
