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Category Archives: litigation
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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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
D.C. Court Throws Out E15 Lawsuit on a Technicality
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has dismissed petitions challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s partial waiver allowing gasoline with 15% ethanol or E15 in 2001 and newer model vehicles. Federal law establishes a renewable fuel mandate that requires gasoline producers to introduce significant amounts of renewable fuel such as ethanol into the Nation’s gasoline supply. Continue reading
Sinclair Oil to Pay $3.8 Million Penalty for Refinery Pollution
Sinclair Oil Corporation will pay a $3.8 million fine and install pollution control equipment at its refineries in Casper and Sinclair, Wyoming after it previously agreed to reduce pollution, but then failed to do so. The U.S. Justice Department said today that the pollution controls would cost about $10.5 million, including other projects to resolve the allegations of violations of the Clean Air Act. Continue reading
Posted in environment, fuel economy or emissions, litigation, news
Tagged air pollution, auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, clean air act, doj, epa, flare gas, Ken Zino, Sinclair
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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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Spyker Sues GM For $3 Billion Over Blocking Saab Sale to Chinese
In what could be viewed as the legal equivalent of a Hail Mary pass, Dutch automaker Spyker filed suit against GM in Detroit yesterday, alleging that GM forced the Swedish brand Saab into bankruptcy and then blocked a sale of the company to Chinese investors, which would have ensured its survival. Continue reading
Gibson Guitar Plea Avoids Prosecution for Importing Protected Woods
Gibson Guitar entered into an agreement with the United States today resolving a criminal investigation into allegations that the company violated the Lacey Act first passed in 1900 by illegally purchasing and importing ebony wood from Madagascar and rosewood and ebony from India. Continue reading
Posted in environment, litigation, news
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, exotic woods, gibson guitar, Ken Zino, lacey act, sustainability
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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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Unintended Acceleration on 730,000 Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute SUVs under NHTSA Scrutiny in New Preliminary Investigation
The Center for Auto Safety had petitioned NHTSA last week to open defect investigations on the V6 Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute models equipped with cruise control. NHTSA opened its own investigation instead, in a move that was required given the seriousness of the allegations that were about to become public.
In a defensive bureaucratic move, NHTSA also denied a CAS request for potentially embarrassing public hearings about the safety agency’s, as well as Ford Motor’s and Mazda’s lack of corrective action thus far. To make matters more complicated and potentially more image damaging for all involved, it is possible that an earlier safety recall resulted in more unintended acceleration accidents on the models involved. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, litigation, news analysis, recalls, safety
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, cas, escape and tribute stuck gas pedals, ford unintended acceleration, Ken Zino, mazda unintended acceleration, nhtsa, odi, toyota unintended acceleration, unintended acceleration
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BP, Marathon, Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, BASF, and Other Hazardous Waste Polluters to Pay for Texas City Superfund Cleanup
The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced have reached an agreement with more then three dozen companies and government agencies that will result in a $56.4 million cleanup of the “Malone Services Company” Superfund Site in Texas City, Texas. The former waste-disposal site is near the shore of Galveston Bay. The deal avoids costly and time-consuming litigation. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, environment, litigation, news, results
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, dot, epa, hazardous waste, Ken Zino, rcra, superfund, texas city
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BP to Pay $13 Million More in fines for Refinery Worker Deaths
BP Products North America will pay $13,027,000 in penalties and fix workplace violations that led to the deaths of 15 workers at its Texas City refinery in 2005. In September 2005, OSHA cited BP for a then-record $21 million – before the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf – because of the explosion at Texas City. Under the agreement, BP has fixed or will fix all existing violations by the end of 2012. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, litigation, manufacturing, news, results, safety
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, bp, bp explosions, deepwater horizon, Ken Zino, texas city
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Volvo Fined $1.5 Million for Not Reporting Safety Defects
Volvo – once known for its safety reputation – now has the dubious distinction of joining Toyota Motor and BMW Group in paying penalties for not reporting defects or violations of U.S. regulations. Volvo will pay the fines into the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury; they will not go toward enforcement of U.S. Safety regulations. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, litigation, recalls, results, safety
Tagged auto informed, auto news, autoinformed.com, Ken Zino, nhtsa, Volvo
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Louis Dreyfus Energy Pays $4 Million for ‘Stealing’ Natural Gas
Louis Dreyfus Energy Services has paid the United States $4,084,000 to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to pay money owed on natural gas acquired from the Department of the Interior, which is to say U.S. taxpayers. Continue reading
