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Category Archives: fools ‘n frauds
Taiwan Auto Lights Maker Guilty of Price Fixing
A Taiwan-based auto lights manufacturer and its aftermarket U.S. distributor have pleaded guilty for participating in a seven-year, international conspiracy to fix the prices of auto lights. Tainan County, Taiwan-based Eagle Eyes Traffic Industrial Company and its U.S. subsidiary, Chino, … Continue reading
NHTSA Says Chinese Counterfeit Air Bags are a Safety Problem
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – NHTSA – has published a consumer safety advisory to warn vehicle owners and repair shops about the dangers of counterfeit Chinese air bags. NHTSA said it has become “aware” of a problem involving the sale of counterfeit air bags for use as replacement parts in vehicles that have been involved in a crash. Continue reading
Fraud Charges Filed in Gulf Oil Cleanup Employment Scam
A 22-count federal indictment was unsealed in New Orleans charging Connie M. Knight, 46, with impersonating a federal employee in order to get people to pay her for fraudulent hazardous waste safety training after the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill. Continue reading
Posted in economy, environment, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news, people, safety, transportation
Tagged autoinformed.com, automotive news, bp, bp deepwater oil spill, connie m. knight, doj, gulf fisheries, Ken Zino, osha, uto informed
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AIG Bailout of $182 Billion Paid Back. Taxpayers make at least $12B
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced it is selling 553,846,153 shares of its American International Group (AIG) common stock at $32.50 per in a public offering. The proceeds to Treasury from the common stock sales are expected to be ~$18.0 billion. This means that the transaction locks in at least a $12.4 billion positive return on the $182 billion in Treasury and Federal Reserve loans and commitments to AIG. The bailout loan will be fully paid off in what remains an unpopular (but extremely effective) example of government intervention in a failed marketplace. Ideologues still refuse to admit that the TARP and associated government actions saved the U.S. and perhaps the global economy. It certainly – without question – saved the U.S. auto industry and this includes companies that received no loans. Continue reading
Posted in economy, fools 'n frauds, news, news analysis, people
Tagged aig, auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, bailouts, Ken Zino, treasury
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Ex Cop Gets Prison Sentence for Robbing I-65 Motorists
A former Alabama police officer has been sentenced to prison for stealing money and property from motorists. The latter day highwayman, Jessie Alan Fuller, 25, of Pensacola, Florida was sentenced to 37 months in prison and two years supervised release. Continue reading
Nippon Seiki to Plead Guilt of Price Fixing on Instrument Panels
Nagoka, Japan-based Nippon Seiki Company has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $1 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of instrument panel clusters installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today. Including Nippon Seiki, eight companies and 11 executives – most of them Japanese – have been charged in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news, people
Tagged auto informed, auto parts price fixing, autoinformed.com, automotive news, bid rigging, doj, Ken Zino, Nippon Seiki, price fxing
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Milestones – 40 Years of Toyota Auto Body – Thanks to a so-called “Chicken Tax”
In one of the ironies of history, Ford Motor, one of the then dominant Detroit Three companies that lobbied the Johnson Administration for protection against imported light trucks, now uses the same tax dodge by performing minor work on its Turkish-built Transit Connect van outside the incoming port of Baltimore to lower its tax rate to 2.5%. Continue reading
Auto Theft UK Style – $473 Million Unrecovered in 2011 Alone
The latest auto theft numbers in Great Britain are just as grim as in the U.S. In 2011, 65,000 vehicles were taken from their owners in the UK and never recovered for losses of £300 million or $473 million. More than two thirds (71%) of stolen cars disappear, never to be seen again. As they are stripped for either parts or shipped out of the country, according to swiftcover.com. Not surprisingly, more expensive stolen cars are more likely to disappear without a trace. Continue reading
Top Ten Stolen Vehicles for 2011 Revealed by NCIB
The National Insurance Crime Bureau or NICB today released its list of the 10 stolen vehicles in the United States. The top spots were evenly split in 2011 with five occupied by offshore brands and five by U.S. automakers. The most popular stolen vehicles among the Detroit Three bands were Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet pickup trucks each holding one spot with Dodge Caravan and Ford Explorer rounding out the domestic models. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, insurance, results
Tagged auto informed, auto theft, autoinformed.com, automotive news, car theft, Ken Zino, midnight auto parts, nicb, vehicle theft
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Yazaki Exec Guilty of Price Fixing Sentenced to 14 Months
An executive of Tokyo-based Yazaki Corporation pled guilty for his role in a conspiracy to fix prices of instrument panel clusters today in a U.S. District court in Detroit. Toshio Sudo from Japan is the 11th executive to be charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. The sweeping investigation, which is ongoing, has implicated some of the auto industry’s largest suppliers, most of them Japanese. Yazaki manufactures and sells a variety of automotive parts, and is a major supplier to Japanese automakers, among other firms. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news, people
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, doj, Ken Zino, price fixing
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Treasury To Sell More AIG Stock. Taxpayers Still Owed $24 Billion and Hold 53% from Controversial Bailout of Reckless Company
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it expects to receive an additional $750 million from its public offering of American International Group (AIG) common stock. The Wall Street underwriters have exercised their so-called over-allotment option to purchase another 24.6 million additional shares of AIG common stock at the public offering price of $30.50 per share. Continue reading
Pilot School Owners Go to Prison Over Swiss Bank Accounts
The criminal actions by the Roberts were made possible by UBS, which in February 2009 entered into a so-called deferred prosecution agreement whereby the bank admitted to helping U.S. taxpayers hide accounts from the IRS. As part of the agreement, UBS provided the U.S. government with the identities of, and account information for, certain U.S. customers of UBS’s cross-border business, including the Roberts. Continue reading
Posted in aviation, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news, people
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, doj, irs, Ken Zino, national test pilot school, tax fraud
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TRW Guilty of Price Fixing Seatbelts, Airbags, Steering Wheels
TRW Deutschland pled guilty yesterday to price fixing seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels sold to two German automobile manufacturers, and installed in cars sold in the United States. This is the second case filed over occupant safety systems sold to auto manufacturers as part of the department’s ongoing antitrust auto parts investigation. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news analysis, people, prices
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, bid rigging, doj, Ken Zino, price fixing, trw price fixing
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Pratt & Whitney of United Technologies Guilty of Criminal Charges for Helping China Develop a Military Attack Helicopter
Pratt & Whitney Canada, a Canadian subsidiary of the Connecticut-based defense contractor United Technologies Corporation, today pled guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act and making false statements in connection with its illegal export to China of U.S.-origin military software used in the development of China’s first modern military attack helicopter, the Z-10. Continue reading
Posted in aviation, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news, news analysis, people, results, transportation
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, china, defense contractors, Ken Zino, pwc
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Ex Alabama Cop Arrested for Stealing from Motorists on I-65
Former Fort Deposit, Alabama Police Officer Carlos Tyson Bennett was arrested today on charges of stealing money from motorists on Interstate 65 in central Alabama and subsequently trying to conceal his criminal activity. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, litigation, news, people
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, crooked cop, doj, i-65 thefts, Ken Zino, police crimes
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