Samsung, the world’s largest maker of memory chips for computers and other gadgets, will pay a $300 million fine to settle accusations it secretly conspired with industry rivals to fix prices and cheat customers, federal officials said Thursday.

Samsung’s guilty plea to a felony price-fixing charge caps a three-year investigation by the Justice Department into makers of the chips, a $7.7 billion market in the United States. Two of Samsung’s leading rivals earlier paid fines totaling $345 million and pleaded guilty in the scheme.

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