Eric Holder slams Toyota while announcing $1.2 billion settlement

Toyota will pay a record settlement of more than $1.2 billion to resolve a federal investigation into its disclosure of deadly safety flaws that caused vehicles to suddenly accelerate, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday morning while laying out a blistering critique of the giant automaker’s actions.
The settlement will allow Toyota to avoid criminal prosecution. The sudden acceleration problem, which was linked to faulty floor mats and accelerator pedals, resulted in the recall of more than 9 million cars worldwide and was tied to 37 deaths.

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“We can say for certain that Toyota intentionally concealed information and misled the public about safety issues,” Holder said at a news conference in Washington, adding: “Rather than promptly disclosing and correcting safety issues about which they were aware, Toyota made misleading public statements to consumers and gave inaccurate facts to members of Congress.”