Litigation

Feds Pressure Toyota With Criminal Investigation

By Angel Reyes

The Japanese automaker Toyota now faces a criminal investigation over how it handled safety issues.  As I noted in a previous post, Toyota's internal documents boasted about the hundreds of millions in savings it was able to earn by defeating previous investigations and lobbying Congress ever so vigilantly.  Now it appears that Congress will test Toyota's boast and investigate whether Toyota covered up and/or misled investigators looking into sudden acceleration, braking, and other safety problems alleged against Toyota.

It doesn't stop there, the Securities and Exchange Committee is seeking to unearth documents related to how Toyota disclosed certain problems.  Remember, the company boasted about the hundreds of millions it saved and presumably those savings, along with vigorous denials about safety problems, propped up the stock price of the world's largest auto manufacturer, Toyota. Ray LaHood the Secretary of Transportation retreated a few weeks ago after having said that 'if you own a Toyota, stop driving it.'  Maybe he was right to say that after all.  Stay tuned.  

Full post as published by Angel Reyes Blog on February 23, 2010 (boomark / email).