DETROIT – Federal prosecutors have announced a settlement with Takata Corp., the company responsible for faulty « explosive » airbags that resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people in the United States.
U. S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade confirmed during a Friday, Jan. 13 press conference that Takata, the Japanese company with U. S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, has agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and will pay $1 billion in fines and restitution.
According to prosecutors, executives at the company put profits ahead of safety by taking part in a scheme to falsify and alter test reports that showed airbag inflators could rupture for more than a decade.
Three Takata executives have been charged in five counts of wire fraud and one conspiracy count in a scheme to conceal the defect in air bag inflators.
They include Shinichi Tanaka, executive VP of Inflator Global Operations, Hideo Nakajima, director of engineering of automotive systems laboratory and Tsuneo Chikaraishi, chief of Japan, Inflator Global Operations.
The investigation is ongoing, McQuade said, and others could be charged as information becomes available.
« We want to send a message of deterrent to auto suppliers who are failing their customers by putting profit ahead of safety, » McQuade said. « Corporations and employees need to be held accountable. Cheaters will not be allowed to gain a competitive advantage over good corporations who play by the rules.  »
Government expects Takata recalls to hit 42 million vehicles
As part of the settlement, which still must be approved by U. S. District Judge George Caram Steeh, Takata will pay $975 million in restitution and $25 million in fines. It will also be placed on probation for three years.
Most of the restitution, $850 million, is for airbag recall and replacement costs incurred by auto manufacturers who were victims of Takata’s fraud scheme.
Another chunk of the restitution, $125 million, will be used for individuals who have or will be physically injured by the airbags.
The airbags in question were installed on both the driver-and passenger-sides of vehicles. The explosive airbags would send shrapnel flying through the cabin of the vehicles when deployed.
Nineteen automakers, 22 brands and more than 42 million vehicles worldwide were affected. Almost 70 million air bag inflators are or will be under recall by 2019, in what some regulators have called the largest and most complex auto safety recall in U. S. history.
NHTSA confirms 11th U. S. death tied to explosive Takata airbags
According to the company’s admissions, in the late 1990s, Takata began developing airbag inflators that relied upon ammonium nitrate as their primary propellant.
From at least in or around 2000, Takata knew that certain ammonium nitrate-based inflators were not performing to the specifications required by the auto manufacturers.
Takata also knew that certain inflators had sustained failures, including ruptures, during testing. Nevertheless, Takata induced its customers to purchase these airbag systems by submitting false and fraudulent reports and other information that concealed the true condition of the inflators.
According to prosecutor, key executives « routinely and systematically » discussed the falsification of test reports in email and in verbal communications.
Even after the inflators began to experience repeated problems in the field – including ruptures causing injuries and deaths – Takata executives continued to withhold the true and accurate inflator test information and data from their customers.
All three executives were suspended in 2015 and are now in Japan. U. S. authorities will work with Japanese authorities to extradite those charged for trial.
McQuade declined to put a percentage on the chances of getting them back to the U. S., but said the chances are « pretty good. « 

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© Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2017/01/takata_to_plead_guilty_for_fra.html
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Japanese car parts maker Takata has agreed to pay $1bn (£820m) in penalties in the US for concealing dangerous defects in its exploding airbags.
The firm also pleaded guilty to a single criminal charge, the company and the US Justice Department said .
Takata will pay a $25m fine, $125m to people injured by the airbags and $850m to carmakers that used them.
The faulty airbags have been linked to at least a dozen deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide.
Most major carmakers have been affected by the fault, with about 100 million Takata airbags recalled globally.
The company’s chief executive, Shigehisa Takada, said: « Takata deeply regrets the circumstances that have led to this situation and remains fully committed to being part of the solution.  »
Takata has previously acknowledged some of its airbag inflators expanded with too much force and sprayed metal shrapnel into cars.
« For more than a decade, Takata repeatedly and systematically falsified critical test data related to the safety of its products, putting profits and production schedules ahead of safety, » said Andrew Weissmann, head of the Justice Department’s fraud section.
« I offer my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those who died and to those who were injured as a result of the Takata Corporation’s failure to fulfil its obligation to ensure the safety of its airbag systems, » said Calvin L Scovel, inspector general of the US Department of Transportation.
Three former Takata executives were also charged by the US authorities on Friday for their part in the scandal.
The charges for conspiracy and wire fraud were filed against Shinichi Tanaka, Hideo Nakajima and Tsuneo Chikaraishi.
All three were long-serving executives at Takata until 2015.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for the three executives, although a spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office in Detroit said it was unclear where the defendants were. They do not have a date to appear in court.
Earlier on Friday Takata shares closed almost 17% higher in Tokyo on reports of the settlement with US regulators.
It has not disclosed the total cost of the global recall, but reports have suggested it is working on a restructuring deal and potential bankruptcy protection .

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Since Daniel Hannan, a formerly obscure MEP, has emerged as the anointed intellectual of the Brexit elite, The Staggers is charting his ascendancy…
Daniel Hannan, as I’ve noted in the past, has an awkward habit of deleting his tweets. Often, by a strange coincidence, it’s the more embarrassing proclamations that vanish into the ether – no explanation, no, “Apologies, friends, I buggered that up didn’t I?” The tweet simply vanishes as if it had never been tweeted.
I’ve taken, then, to screenshot-ing some of the best morsels, just in case they’re not there the next time I look. Here’s one now:
Funny thing about that tweet is that Danny Boy has not, at time of writing, deleted it. Despite the fact he was tricked into embarrassing himself by a mean-spirited Remoaner, it’s still sitting there on the internet looking for all the world like its author is not crippled with embarrassment at the fact he could have been such a dunderhead as to write it. Two things are wrong with it, one relatively small, the other so huge as to be all encompassing.
The small one lies in the choice of monarchs. Not all of them are unreasonable: Henry VIII famously broke with the Catholic Church in his search for a divorce, an heir, and a quick bonk with Anne Boleyn. Since that meant an end to the period in which the English crown was answerable to a higher authority in the form of the Pope, we’ve already been treated to umpteen “Britain’s first Brexit” articles, and they’re not soon likely to stop – all this, despite the fact the big man liked to go around telling people he was also the King of France.
Similarly England spent much of the reign of his daughter trying to avoid being swallowed by the Spanish Empire, so it’s probably fair to suggest that Elizabeth I wasn’t a big fan of European integration either. George V, though, was closely related to – indeed, shared a face with – half the other head of states in Europe during his time on the planet, so what he’s doing there is anybody’s guess.
The truly vexing inclusion, though, is Edward V. Is Daniel Hannan really saying that a boy king who reigned for 79 days and was murdered by a wicked uncle at the age of 12 had serious concerns about the European project? Was it the damage that the Combined Agricultural Policy wrought on developing world farmers that Edward was brooding about in his tower? The money wasted on repeatedly moving the European Parliament between Brussels and Strasbourg? What?
@JonnElledge To be fair, if you’d ask the Princes in the Tower if they wanted to leave or remain, I’d bet they’d vote leave.
— Chris Cook (@xtophercook) December 29, 2016
Okay let’s be charitable and assume it’s a typo, presumably for another of Henry’s kids Edward VI. (It certainly wasn’t Edward III who spent much of his reign trying to get into Europe, by kicking off an endless war with France.) But the bigger problem here lies not in the specifics of Daniel’s answer, but in the fact he bothered to answer at all. The entire exercise is entirely ludicrous. It’s like asking for Theresa May’s position on the dissolution of the monasteries, or Jeremy Hunt’s proposals for tackling the Black Death.
The question is an ahistorical nonsense – not just because the European Union was invented in the late 20th century to deal with problems specific to a particular time, but because it misunderstands how England’s role in Europe has evolved over the centuries.
For the first five hundred years or so after the Conquest, the nations of the British Isles were a key part of a western European political system that included France and the Low countries. Until it lost Calais in 1558, indeed, the English Crown generally held territory in France.
The idea that the United Kingdom, as the state became, was with Europe but not of it – that its destiny lay on the high seas, not the continent – is a notion that’s core to Eurosceptic mythology, but one which didn’t emerge until the imperial era. Exactly when I’m not sure (unlike certain Conservative MEPs I’m not afraid to admit my ignorance, which is what makes us better than the animals and egg avatars). However you count it, though, the period between then and 1973 must make up a minority of England’s history as a nation. For most of its history, the idea that the England was somehow not properly “European” would have seemed crazy.
Actually, there was one major European project which a king of both England and Scotland kept us out of, a policy decision confirmed by his successors. That project was a key plank of French foreign policy, grew to encompass more far flung countries like Sweden, and was launched largely to prevent the Germans from getting above themselves. It was the Thirty Years War.
But is James I & VI on Hannan’s list? Is he b*llocks.
A Fabian Society report at the start of 2017 determined that Labour had no chance of winning the next election. Combining the issues of Brexit, Scotland and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed unpopularity, the report suggested the Labour party was pretty much finished as a singular political entity. It would be better, the report concluded, for the party to join with other forces across the United Kingdom to take the fight to the Tories.
With friends like that, who needs enemies?
This week saw Corbyn’s response to the challenge. He relaunched himself as a populist force for progressive good. There were some early signs that Corbyn stands prepared to adapt to this new role. The first example came in an unlikely form – online banter between the leader of the opposition and TV pundit Piers Morgan. Though some were quick to brush it off as a cheap tactic, it was one of the first posts I’ve seen that was shared both by the Westminster political bubble and my old classmates from back home.
Reaching beyond the political class is perhaps the biggest test that Corbyn faces, in his attempt to win the trust of the country at large. An ability to reach out to the « great ignored » would reap more than just a general election victory – it would create a sea change in British politics. Though Corbyn’s supporters are mocked for talking about those who don’t vote, a plan to entice these people to turn up on polling day offers a genuine chance to reverse the Fabian Society’s prediction. Football banter will not achieve this alone, but a plan to engage with those across the political divide on common-sense issues should certainly be explored.
Corbyn’s support for a « maximum wage cap » also sparked a long overdue debate surrounding pay inequality. Though a spokesman later confirmed that the « wage cap » was but one potential proposal, the theme of fairness in pay will surely stand as a central point for Corbyn’s populist relaunch. While the announcement concerning freedom of movement was somewhat muddled, it proved that the leadership is ready to grasp the nettle and discuss the best way forward considering the decision to leave the European Union. I’d much rather the party be engaged in this debate than maintain the deafening silence that we witnessed over the Christmas period.
As Corbyn and his team attempt to paint the Labour leader in a different light, one thing has remained concrete: the offer of an alternative. It is imperative that Labour continues to highlight the disastrous economic and social management of this Tory government. In a week when the Red Cross reported a “humanitarian crisis” within our National Health Service, the alternative vision offered by a genuinely radical Labour party has never been needed more. In a week when the Tory vision for Brexit was confirmed as a hard-right rush towards the exit door, Labour’s promise to fight for access to the single market stands as a rallying call for progressives.
The choice at the next election remains a decision between Theresa May’s backward Tory party and Corbyn’s optimistic Labour party. There is no other choice. It is time for Labour’s friends – such as the Fabian Society and its backbench MPs – to offer the support that Corbyn needs in order to at least offer his vision to the British people. We are, after all, a democratic socialist party that believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone. We must hold true to this motto in the dark months ahead and unite so as to achieve the Labour government that we know this country desperately needs.

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