Pazgas Ltd. and current and former senior executives have been fined under a plea bargain with the Antitrust Authority in the gas cartel affair. The company will pay a fine of NIS 4.04 million, former Pazgas CEO Mordechai Ben-Shach (now CEO of Paz Oil Company Ltd. (TASE:PZOL)) will pay NIS 1.25 million, CEO Pinchas Biderman will pay NIS 450,000, and former sales manager Yoav Zakkai will pay NIS 55,000.
Under the plea bargain in a revised indictment to be sent to the court, Pazgas and its executives admitted to creating a cartel in the household and industrial gas sectors. The plea bargain adds that Ben-Shach will serve 14 days community service, Biderman will serve four and a half months community service, and Zakkai will serve six months. Pazgas will also post a NIS 2 million bond and refrain from breaking the Restrictive Trade Practices Law (5748-1988) for three years.
The Antitrust Authority indicted Pazgaz, Amisragas Ltd., Supergas Ltd. and Dorgas Ltd. and their executive in 2004 for setting up a cartel. They were charged with breaking the Restrictive Trade Practices Law and harming competition by dividing up the household and industrial gas market, more than 90% of which the four companies control.
Under the plea bargain and revised indictment, the defendants admit that Pazgas was a party to a cartel in the period from the beginning of 1994 through mid-1996.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 28, 2007
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