LG Display, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes have agreed to plead guilty and pay $585 million in fines for their role in an LCD panel price-fixing scheme, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

LG will be responsible for $400 million of that fine, the second highest criminal fine ever imposed by the department's antitrust division, DOJ said.

South Korea-based LG Display Co. and its California subsidiary LG Display America pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy between September 2001 and June 2006 to fix the price of thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD panels used in computer monitors and notebooks, TVs, mobile phones, and other electronic devices.

Chunghwa, a Taiwanese company, will hand over $65 million for conspiring with LG and another unnamed co-conspirator between September 2001 and December 2006.

Japan-based Sharp will pay $120 million for a separate conspiracy to fix the price of TFT-LCD panels sold to: Dell from April 2001 to December 2006 for use in its desktops and laptops; Motorola between 2005 and 2006 for use in its Razr mobile phones; and Apple Computer from September 2005 to December 2006 for iPod screens.

Specifically, the three companies were charged with agreeing to charge prices for TFT-LCD panels at pre-determined levels, issuing price quotations in accordance with those levels, and exchanging information about sales of TFT-LCD panels to make sure those prices were being enforced.

The charges were filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco and are the result of a joint investigation between the DOJ antitrust division's San Francisco field office and the FBI. The agreement is subject to the approval of the court.