A federal judge in Detroit Friday approved a $4.3 billion settlement of criminal and civil fraud charges against Volkswagen AG, sentencing the German automaker to three years’ probation, including oversight by an independent monitor to prevent future misconduct.
The appointment of a government overseer to keep close tabs on VW engineers and ensure they obey U.S. laws marks a new low for the global auto industry. Now all three of the world’s largest auto manufacturers are under U.S. government oversight.
Independent federal monitors are already in place at Toyota Motor and General Motors, both of which admitted their own criminal misdeeds to the U.S. Justice Department in recent years.
In March 2014, Toyota pleaded guilty to misleading customers and U.S. regulators about safety issues related to unintended acceleration in its Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The Japanese automaker agreed to a $1.2 billion fine and an independent monitor to review and assess its safety record and reporting policies at least through August 2017.
I write about industrial innovation and the global auto industry
Volkswagen Chairman Matthias Mueller, at the company’s annual press conference in Wolfsburg, Germany, in March. The company has mostly settled its legal disputes with authorities in the USA over its diesel emissions manipulations though it still faces a number of lawsuits and investigations in Europe where it sold a much larger number of affected cars. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
A federal judge in Detroit Friday approved a $4.3 billion settlement of criminal and civil fraud charges against Volkswagen AG, sentencing the German automaker to three years’ probation, including oversight by an independent monitor to prevent future misconduct.
The appointment of a government overseer to keep close tabs on VW engineers and ensure they obey U.S. laws marks a new low for the global auto industry. Now all three of the world’s largest auto manufacturers are under U.S. government oversight.
Independent federal monitors are already in place at Toyota Motor and General Motors, both of which admitted their own criminal misdeeds to the U.S. Justice Department in recent years.
In March 2014, Toyota pleaded guilty to misleading customers and U.S. regulators about safety issues related to unintended acceleration in its Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The Japanese automaker agreed to a $1.2 billion fine and an independent monitor to review and assess its safety record and reporting policies at least through August 2017.
In September 2015, GM settled charges that it concealed an ignition switch safety defect from federal regulators and misleading consumers about it for years. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, GM pleaded not guilty but paid a $900 million fine and agreed to an independent monitor to oversee its recall and safety processes. If the government is satisfied, the charges could be dropped in 2018.
Automakers aren’t the only ones. A major industry supplier, Tokyo-based Takata, also is under U.S. government oversight. It pleaded guilty last January to selling defective airbag inflators, and agreed to a $1 billion penalty and appointment of a compliance monitor. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working with an independent monitor to oversee the supply of replacement parts and manage future recalls.
Source: Forbes
The post After VW Sentencing For Diesel Scam, The World’s Top 3 Automakers Are All Under Federal Oversight appeared first on Compliancex.
April 24, 2017 at 06:55PM
from The Compliance Exchange
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