The US Department of Justice reportedly has asked a federal judge to dismiss a criminal charge against Toyota Motor after the automaker completed three years of monitoring as part of a US$1.2bn settlement over claims of sudden unintended acceleration in its vehicles.
According to Reuters, the request, filed in federal court in Manhattan, should bring to an end Toyota's legal troubles stemming from its admission that it misled US consumers by concealing and making deceptive statements about the extent of sudden acceleration problems back in 2009 and 2010.
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In 2014, the automaker paid what was then a record fine for a car company to settle the case and reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the department. That agreement included three years of oversight by an independent monitor, which ended last Monday.
Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin told Reuters the automaker was pleased the government confirmed Toyota's compliance with the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement and was moving to dismiss the case.
"Over the past three years, we have worked hard in the spirit of continuous improvement to make Toyota a stronger company that serves its customers better," he said.
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In bringing charges, the department had said Toyota minimised problems, misled regulators and provided inaccurate information to congress in the scandal linked to at least five deaths.
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By GlobalDataUltimately, the department did not bring criminal charges against current or former Toyota executives.
Reuters noted Toyota made significant changes to its safety practices after the recall crisis that briefly forced it to halt sales of nearly half of its vehicles in 2010 and led to company president Akio Toyoda appearing before congress to apologise.
Toyota settled other related suits, including an agreement covering as many as 22m current and former Toyota owners over sudden acceleration claims valued at as much as $1.63bn. Some individual civil claims are still pending in California, Reuters added.
