NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA — The Justice Department unsealed an indictment in April 2026 charging seven Chinese executives and four shipping container manufacturers with price fixing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2025 indictment, returned in the Northern District of California, had remained under seal until defendant Vick Nam Hing Ma was apprehended and detained in France in April 2026. Ma's extradition to the United States is still pending.

Prosecutors allege that the defendants' actions raised shipping container prices during the pandemic. Omeed Assefi, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, said the case involves approximately $35 billion of global commerce.

The companies charged are Singamas Container Holdings Ltd; China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd.; Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment Co., also known as Dong Fang Ltd.; and CXIC Group Containers Co., Ltd. The individuals charged include Singamas CEO Siong Seng Teo; CIMC CEO Boliang Mai; CIMC Vice President Tianhua Huang; CIMC General Manager Yongbo Wan; Dong Fang General Manager Qianmin Li; and CXIC CEO Yuqiang Zhang.

"We are holding these Chinese bad actors accountable for exploiting the pandemic to fill their own coffers," said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. Woodward also said that the Antitrust Division does not have jurisdiction over COVID-19 origin investigations.

"At the height of the Covid pandemic, the defendants lined their own pockets by choking the world's supply of shipping containers," Assefi said. The Justice Department is working on several criminal investigations related to COVID-19 and its origins, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.