Japanese automotive company Takata Corp. agreed to plead guilty on the charge of wire fraud, United States attorney Barbara McQuade said on Friday at a press conference in Detroit. The company agreed to pay a $1 billion settlement, of which $25 million for the criminal penalty and $850 million to automakers who used its defective airbags, court papers showed. Takata will also be on probation for three years.
Three former high-level executives were indicted today on multiple charges of conspiracy and wire fraud by a federal grand jury. Shinichi Tanaka, Hideo Nakajima and Tsuneo Chikaraishi allegedly falsified reports with the intention of concealing tests which showed that the airbags could overinflate in crashes. On collision, the faulty systems send flying shrapnel that can injure the driver and other passengers in the car. The defect led to the death of at least 16 people worldwide. The executives are accused of altering mentioned reports starting from the year 2000, while the company itself faces one count of wire fraud. Takata, which supplies airbags to many big automakers, recalled around 40 million of its inflators last year.
Image: EPA / Christopher Jue
