九家日本汽车零件商承认在美国市场串通价格并接受7.4亿罚款

Washington (CNN) -- Nine Japanese auto parts manufacturers and two executives have agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $740 million in criminal fines for price fixing conspiracies, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The companies fixed prices in 30 different car parts sold to the big Detroit automakers and admitted fixing prices on products sold to U.S. subsidiaries of the biggest Japanese car companies.

The latest development is part of an ongoing antitrust investigation that has resulted in more than $1.6 billion in fines and criminal convictions of 17 executives.