US Attorney's Office Consider Charging General Motors With Criminal Wire Fraud

by Cameron Aubernon

Published: June 10th, 2015

us attorney s office consider charging general motors with criminal wire fraud

Federal prosecutors in New York are considering criminal wire fraud charges against General Motors over its role in the February 2014 ignition recall.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York are also considering other charges against GM, though they hope to reach a settlement with the automaker by late summer or early fall of this year, Reuters reports.

The basis for the wire fraud claim is linked to the prosecutors’ findings suggesting GM possibly hid information about the defects in the ignition switches installed in 2.66 million vehicles made in the early through mid-2000s, as well as made misleading statements on the issue.

The yet-to-be-finalized action is one more legal action GM has on its plate, following numerous civil lawsuits, over 4,300 compensation claims, and an ongoing criminal probe set to conclude the interview phase by October.

As far as settlements with the government are concerned involving the wire fraud charge, CEO Mary Barra informed shareholders her company fully cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and any settlements to be made would occur on the company’s timeline.

[Photo credit: John Marino/ Flickr/ CC BY-SA 2.0]

#CriminalWiredFraud #February2014 #GeneralMotors #IgnitionSwitches #ProductRecalls #U.S.Attorney'sOffice #U.S.Attorney'sOfficeForTheSouthernDistrictOfNewYor

Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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11 comments

OneAlpha on Jun 10, 2015

I'd like to know when the same laws that sent Bernie Madoff to prison will be used to put truly big-time crooks like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer behind bars. After all, Madoff defrauded Americans of only $65 billion. How many trillions have the Democratic party stolen from the American population, through the various laws they've passed over the decades?

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- Psarhjinian on Jun 10, 2015
  
  Nice partisan rant. Let me try one: I'd like to see war crimes laws used against the guys who are responsible for killing and wounding tens of thousands for what was, frankly, at best a "fabricated" case for war and at worst an outright "wag the dog" lie.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Jun 10, 2015
  
  @psarhjinian He's right in Schumer and especially Pelosi are criminals (as is most of Congress) but you both get off topic. My thoughts on the article are this: while I'm not a lawyer I believe wire fraud has a broad definition and is a felony. The lawyers in the case were looking to charge a felony but probably couldn't prove negligence or involuntary manslaughter. The correct charge would be something to the effect of negligence leading to involuntary manslaughter, not wire fraud. Look at the reasoning: "prosecutors’ findings suggesting GM possibly hid information about the defects in the ignition switches". We already know there was likely a cover up just given the facts to date. But what actually happened? Negligence in 2001 led to the wrongful death of people and after the fact there may have been a cover up. What's the real crime here? This strikes me of another example of lawyers not being able to prove their case and just throwing bogus charges they think they can make stick in order to secure a conviction. Pu*****.
  
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- OneAlpha on Jun 10, 2015
  
  @psarhjinian And while were at it, hit the Democratic party itself with a serious RICO case. What they don't know about villainy, you could write on the back of a business card.
  
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- Pch101 on Jun 10, 2015
  
  Someone should imprison Al Gore for using taxpayer dollars to give an online voice to beta males like yourself.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Jun 10, 2015
  
  @OneAlpha The nation will continue to decay and gov't expand until an implosion or external war destroys it.
  
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- Bokonon on Jun 10, 2015
  
  Take it somewhere else, OneAlpha. A lot of us come here to get away from the partisan political screaming.
  
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- Dantes_inferno on Jun 11, 2015
  
  @Bokonon Thank you. I have no use for politics, much less either party IMHO. "PARTISANSHIP - I'll hug your elephant if you'll kiss my ass."
  
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- JimC2 on Jun 11, 2015
  
  @28-Cars-Later "throwing bogus charges they think they can make stick in order to secure a conviction" Yup. Remember how they took down Al Capone? Nothing new with this strategy. I'm imagining screaming monkeys throwing stuff.
  
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SCE to AUX on Jun 10, 2015

Didn't this same thing happen in "The Firm", including mail fraud?

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- 28-Cars-Later on Jun 10, 2015
  
  It did, and it was Tom Cruise's way of giving Ed Harris a case in complicity against his firm instead of going after the mafia as Harris had wanted.
  
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