Washington. The japanese group Takata pleaded guilty to fraud in the united States this Friday and will have to pay a fine criminal than a billion dollars per the case of its airbags defective, which led to the largest recall in the history of the automobile in the country.
With the goal of closing the criminal cases, the manufacturer of automobile parts, japanese admitted to have delivered to their customers, major automobile manufacturers, reports “manipulated and fraudulent” to cover the defects.
“The equipment manufacturers automotive that sell products intended to protect consumers against the injuries or deaths should give priority to security before profits,” said Barbara McQuade, one of the officials of the department of Justice (DoJ).
these air bags, which can be switched on unexpectedly, and spontaneously, are credited with having caused the death of 15 people, 11 of them in the united States.
as of 2000, the group would have been given these false reports to avoid the supervision and to maintain their sales figures.
The scandal led to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency for the safety car, to order the withdrawal of about 70 million of these air bags, which have been widely used by many manufacturers (Honda, BMW, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Ford, Nissan and Toyota, among others).
About 30 million more units must be repaired in the rest of the world.
The penalty of a billion dollars imposed on Takata will allow you to avoid a criminal trial and, almost in its entirety, will be used to compensate motorists and manufacturers deceived by the practices of the group, explained to the DoJ.
The scandal had already cost the group in November of 2015, a civil penalty unprecedented $ 200 million in the united States and forced them to announce a number of measures to change its practices.
Three defendants
in Addition, three former executives of Takata were indicted as a result of the investigation, according to court documents published on Friday.
these Are the first indictments in the scandal of the air bags.
Shinichi Tanaka, Hideo Nakajima and Tsuneo Chikaraishi are accused of “conspiracy” for attempting to conceal the serious defects of these air bags that have been used on a large scale by many manufacturers in the u.s. and overseas, according to the indictment dated in December and released this Friday.
Despite several months of investigation, the U.s. authorities still have not determined the fundamental cause of the failure which affects some air bags Takata equipped with inflators of ammonium nitrate. Two factors that increase the risk, however, appear to have been identified: the age and long exposure to a high humidity.
With this new announcement, the Obama administration closed one of its emblematic cases before handing the remote to Donald Trump, who will take office on January 20.
on Wednesday, the U.s. authorities had already closed the aspect of criminal of another scandal in the car sector, imposing additional sanctions by the order of 4 thousand 300 million dollars to Volkswagen by the scandal of the diesel engines are manipulated.
The financial settlement is also a relief for the japanese group that searches for an external investor to orchestrate a restructuring. Rumors of an agreement made to shoot the actions of Takata Friday morning in Tokyo.
The negotiations with several potential candidates were initiated several months ago, but have clashed with the numerous risks judicial weighing on the group, also affected by claims of motorists.
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