Takata Fined One Billion Dollars for Faulty Air Bags

They do not now have a court date.

According to prosecutor, key executives “routinely and systematically” discussed the falsification of test reports in email and in verbal communications. USA prosecutors said they would work with Japanese authorities to try to extradite them to the United States to face trial.

They conspired to enrich the company and themselves by inducing carmakers to buy airbags that contained “faulty, inferior, non-performing, non-compliant, or unsafe inflators” by issuing false reports and other information that hid the inflators’ true condition, according to the court filing.

According to the indictment, the executives were at the centre of efforts to manipulate airbag safety data that continued for as long as 15 years.

All have front passenger air bag inflators made by Takata that can explode with too much force and spew metal shrapnel. “They killed a lot of people and they hurt a lot of people”.

US prosecutors allege the three executives did whatever they needed to do to keep selling the defective airbags to automakers, with emails mentioned in the indictment claiming the executives wrote about having no choice but to falsify documents provided to an automaker. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

A Reuters source confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that Takata is expected to agree to come up with the $1 billion within a year or when it secures a financial backer.

The Justice Department said it had recommended together with Takata that Ken Feinberg, a compensation expert, oversee the automaker and victim compensation funds.

“Companies have a responsibility to ensure that the products they make are safe for consumers”, Nelson said Friday.

It was not immediately clear whether the executives are cooperating with authorities. Tanaka was formerly listed as an executive officer at Takata headquarters and the company’s chief director of procurement.

The recalls have affected 19 automakers to date. Automakers have recalled 42 million cars equipped with 69 million Takata air bag inflators, the largest automotive recall in USA history.

The scandal prompted the largest safety recall in United States history.

Over the past few days, the 2017 North American International Auto Show kicked off in Detroit; Volkswagen’s ongoing Dieselgate scandal reached a massively important milestone; and one of the largest recalls in history-the one involving Takata’s fatally flawed airbag inflators-added hundreds of thousands of vehicles to its fix list. The initial recall of 34 million vehicles included BMW, Chrysler, Daimler Trucks, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota.

The U.S. government has fined Takata Corp.

In Japan, Takata shares settled on Friday at 1,061 Japanese yen, up 16.47%.