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- New UAW International Executive Board Sworn In
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Category Archives: fools ‘n frauds
U.S. Treasury Sells Final Shares of AIG Common Stock. Taxpayers Earn $22.7 Billion! More Profits to Come from the Bailout
Along with today’s stock sale, the return to date on the Federal Reserve and Treasury’s combined $182 billion commitment to bailout AIG during the financial crisis is now $22.7 billion. Treasury has now earned a positive return of $5 billion and the Federal Reserve has posted a profit of $17.7 billion. Continue reading
International Auto Fraud Ring Busted in Four Countries
Law enforcement officials in Romania, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and Canada arrested six Romanian nationals today for their alleged involvement in a sophisticated multimillion-dollar auto fraud scheme. The U.S. Department of Justice said the defendants were responsible for saturating Internet marketplace websites including eBay, Cars.com, AutoTrader.com and CycleTrader.com with detailed advertisements for cars, motorcycles, boats and other high-value items generally priced in the $10,000 to $45,000 range. Unbeknownst to the buyers, however, the merchandise did not exist. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, litigation
Tagged amazon, auto fraud, auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, autotrader, cyber fraud, doj, e-bay, Ken Zino, paypal
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Louisiana Used Car Dealer Sentenced to Prison for Odometer Fraud
Beau Michael Guidry of Baton Rouge, Louisiana was busted flat today by a U.S. District Court judge who sentenced the used car dealer to 20 months in prison for rolling back the odometers on used cars. Moreover, the court ordered Guidry to pay $72,805.51 in restitution to the victims of his crimes. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, litigation
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, Ken Zino, odometer fraud, used cars
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Melbourne Airport Caught Stealing from Taxpayers in NASA Scam
The misuse of NASA funding by two airport entities has resulted in millions of dollars of fines under the False Claims Act, which is used to look after taxpayer funded government grants. The Technological Research and Development Authority will pay $15 million to resolve allegations that it violated the Act in connection with grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Economic Development Administration (EDA) of the Department of Commerce, the Justice Department said Continue reading
Chinese Qoros Defends Name against Kia Quoris in EU
Upstart Chinese automaker Qoros Automotive Company has successfully defended it brand name against South Korean Kia in a German Court. A district court in Hamburg granted Qoros’ motion for a preliminary injunction against Kia Motors Corporation that bars Kia from using the name “Quoris motor vehicles in the European Union. The court found that coexistence of “Qoros and “Quoris” in a car market would cause consumer confusion. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, marketing
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, Ken Zino, kia quoris, quoros
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BP in Plea Deal Pays $4 Billion for Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. Highest Execs Free from Criminal Charges as Stockholders Pay Fines
BP shareholders will pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties because of the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill that killed 11 people and caused the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The highest BP executive are now clear of future criminal charges as the result of the plea bargain where stockholder will pay fines for causing the monumental oil pollution that is still despoiling the Gulf Coast coast. During the disaster, BP publicly maintained that 5,000 gallons of oil were spewing forth daily into the Gulf, when in fact 60,000 gallons a day were gushing into the water and destroying the ecosystem. Continue reading
Posted in environment, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, bp, deepwater horizon, Ken Zino, oil spills
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Chinese Motorcycles, RVs and Engines Violate Clean Air Act
Senior executives at two vehicle and engine importers in California will pay a $50,000 penalty because the products sold were in violation of Clean Air Act regulations. The defendants, Yuan Cheng International Group, Inc. (YCIG) and NST, Inc. (NST), located in Montclair, California, allegedly imported and sold vehicles and engines from China that had excessive levels of emissions. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, fuel economy or emissions, people
Tagged air pollution fines, auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, china, doj, epa, Ken Zino
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Hyundai Cancels Media Event in Wake of EPA MPG Fraud
Hyundai has just canceled a media event in Michigan after the revelation last Friday that 600,000 of its 2010-2012 models had fraudulent EPA stickers that overstated mileage ratings by as much as 3 mpg. Continue reading
General Motors Posts Q3 Profit of $1.5 Billion, off -$200 Million. Ideologues Out in Full Force for Halloween and the Election
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) today announced third quarter net income of $1.5 billion, a drop of -$200 million from the same period in the prior year. This works out to $0.89 per share including special items, which reduced net income by $100 million and cut earnings per share by $0.04. In the third quarter a year ago, GM’s net income was $1.7 billion or $1.03 per share. The results represent a turnaround especially in view of Q1 of 2009 when GM lost almost -$10 per share.
In spite of wild claims – critics say deliberately false – from the repudiated Republican right about the auto bailout, GM is not going bankrupt. GM’s debt-to-equity ratio is only 25% of the overall auto industry average, and it now has more than $37 billion in liquidity. GM in the context of the current travails of the global auto industry is performing reasonably well. Continue reading
GM and BMW Diagnostic Tool Counterfeiter Arrested in Virginia
The seller of Chinese-built counterfeit tools was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia for alleged participating in a conspiracy to sell U.S. consumers more than $3 million worth of counterfeit General Motors (GM) and Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) automotive diagnostic tools, electronic keys and fobs. Continue reading
Presidential Run Gets Uglier – Labor Ads “Romney a Traitor”
The United Auto Workers Union among other labor groups is applauding and promoting new advertisements that call presidential candidate Mitt Romney an economic traitor who desecrated teh American flag. The ads – both television and online were unveiled today by a front group called Workers’ Voice and Patriot Majority Continue reading
Posted in auto news, economy, fools 'n frauds, labor issues, marketing, news, news analysis, people
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, bain capital, china, Ken Zino, mitt romeny, outsourcing, sensate plant
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Ally Financial Sells Its Canadian Auto Financing Business
Notably absent as buyers were Ford Credit and General Motors. Ally has other international operations in Europe and Latin America on the block, and GM has submitted a bid for the business. Ally expects to announce the buyer after the U.S. Presidential election next month. Continue reading
Ally Financial to Sell Mexican Insurance Business
Ally Financial today announced that it has reached an agreement to sell its Mexican insurance business, ABA Seguros, to the ACE Group, one of the world’s largest multi-line property and casualty insurers. ABA Seguros is the fourth largest insurer in the Mexican auto insurance market, and the transaction has a purchase price of $865 million in cash.
The latest move to fix the balance sheet of the former finance arm of General Motors comes a week after the announcement that Ally will make a payment of approximately $134 million, or $1.125 per share, to the U.S. Treasury next month. U.S. taxpayers have invested $17.2 billion in keeping Ally in business as a bank holding company after improvident home mortgages made it bankrupt under the Bush market crash. Continue reading
Milestones: 25 years of Volvo Airbags
The airbag has been a standard feature in all cars for several years now, but in the early days both the technology and its reliability created intense debate with safety advocates and government regulators ignoring the very real problems earlier designs had. The problem in the U.S. was largely caused by Joan Claybrook and other advocates and legislators who sold the idea of the airbag as eliminating the need for unpopular safety belts and belt interlock system.
In spite of extensive crash test data from Ford and General Motors, among others, showing that the regulation proposed in 1984 and effective in 1987 required a too powerful explosion to protect an unbelted 170-pound male without hurting smaller stature people the law went ahead. Regulators and politicians simply ignored the engineers. Dead drivers and passengers, some of them decapitated, were the grisly result until the regulations were rewritten as field results came in – dead on arrival so to speak. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, milestones, safety
Tagged airbags, auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, joan claybrook, Ken Zino, killer airbags, nhtsa
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