Toyota pays $1.2 B fine, to face new wire charge in settling US criminal probe on vehicle recall

The US Justice Department had said recently that it has reached an agreement with Toyota Motor Corp to end the criminal probe the federal agency has launched on the automaker. Toyota will be paying a $1.2 billion penalty to end the investigation on the sudden, unintended acceleration on its vehicles. The automaker, said Bloomberg, was forced to recall over 10 million vehicles all over the world in 2009 and 2010.

The news agency said the root cause of the vehicle issue was several improvements Toyota had done on its cars. The Toyota City, Japan-based company was found to have made modifications to its gas pedals and floor mats, which caused shifting and jams in the vehicles' accelerators.

The recalled vehicles were said to have been fixed, with Toyota equipping them with brake override software. Bloomberg said the automaker had made the systems a standard installation to all vehicles moving forward.

The vehicle recall had not only elicited a criminal probe by a federal agency, but lawsuits that claimed that the installations had harmed the value of the cars complainants have bought or had caused accidents that led to injury and death. Bloomberg said Toyota had settled the lawsuits lodged against the company.

According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the settlement with Toyota marks the largest criminal penalty the federal agency has imposed to an automaker in the country. Aside from the penalty, Holder said that Toyota will admit to the wrongdoing and will be subject to a rigorous review by an independent monitor. However, Holder said that Toyota will still face a wire fraud charge.

In a news conference today, Holder stated, "Toyota intentionally concealed information and misled the public. (The company) confronted a public safety emergency as if it were a simple public relations problem."

Toyota Motor North America chief legal officer Christopher Reynolds said, "In the more than four years since these recalls, we have gone back to basics at Toyota to put our customers first. We have made fundamental changes across our global operations to become a more responsive company -- listening better to our customers' needs and proactively taking action to serve them."

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Toyota vehicle recall, US Justice Department

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