Tag Archives: Lawsuits/Legal

SEC Investigating VW Due to the “Voltswagen” Stunt

Voltswagen

The “Voltswagen” April Fool’s Day prank has led to an investigation by the SEC.

What started out as a “humorous” advertising and marketing ploy could land German automaker Volkswagen in serious trouble with the federal government.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is apparently looking into VW’s “Voltswagen” marketing stunt to determine if it hurt company stock prices and may have broken any U.S. securities laws, according to German news outlet Der Spiegel.

The incident in question dates back to March 29. As a sort of early April Fool’s Day prank (and marketing ploy), VW “accidentally” released a rough draft of a press release declaring the company was going to change its name to “Voltswagen” as part of a larger effort to promote its ever-growing line-up of electric vehicles (EVs).

This action was picked up by the worldwide automotive press and on March 30 VW issued an official press release to several news outlets, including the Associated Press, confirming the leaked statement from the day before.

This action resulted in VW’s stock price going up. At one point it was 12.5% above its price before the whole incident.

SEC looking at jump in stock price

VW of America President Scott Keogh took responsibility for the poorly received April Fools’ prank that wasn’t on April 1.

This is what caught the attention of the SEC, taking what many considered a fairly unfunny publicity ruse to a possible federal offense.

After the April Fool’s stunt failed in the eyes of the media and the public, VW issued a press statement saying the releases were actually part of a larger tradition in which companies often issue prank statements.

This one just meant to also focus the world’s attention on VW’s growing EV portfolio.

But public statements that affect stock prices usually don’t get an “April Fools” immunity. An SEC investigation could result in charges against the company.

Several news organizations, including The New York Times and Reuters, have asked for a comment from VW. So far, the company has declined to issue one.

Just one of many VW legal scandals

This is not the first time VW has gotten into trouble for the way it conducts its business.

Oh those wacky Germans!! As quickly as it got here, VW took it away: Voltswagen is the company that never was.

In October 2015, as Volkswagen struggled to deal with its diesel emissions scandal, new data raised questions about whether the automaker properly reported death and injury claims to U.S. regulators during the past decade.

A study by the financial advisory firm Stout Risius Ross Inc., found that Volkswagen of America reported nine times fewer deaths and injuries than the average of the 11 largest automakers operating in the U.S. market. Significantly, VW reported less than half as many incidents as either Fiat Chrysler or Honda, both of which have been fined for underreporting their own death and injury data.

Back in September 2015, the EPA accused the German maker of using a so-called “defeat devices,” software designed to fool government emissions tests, on a variety of luxury models from the Audi and Porsche brands. The feds charged VW took steps to cover up excess emissions on 482,000 vehicles sold in the U.S. during a 7-year period.

The end result was VW paying billions of dollars in fines to various governments around the world. The company also faced numerous consumer lawsuits that further cost the company money.


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Angry Shareholders Sue Lordstown Motors

Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns is named in the recently filed lawsuit against the EV startup.

Angry shareholders filed at least three lawsuits against Lordstown Motors for fraud in U.S. District Court, demanding compensation from the cash reserves the company says it is planning to use to launch its battery-electric pickup truck this fall.

The startup company, housed in an old General Motors plant to produce its truck, has yet to file a response to any of the lawsuits. The first suit against Lordstown was filed March 18.

The lawsuits, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio’s Youngstown Division, comes on the heels of disastrous week for the fledgling electric vehicle company. It began with the devastating research report by Hindenburg Research that sent the company’s stock tumbling.

The company followed that with an unsatisfactory earnings call during which the executives failed to answer the issues raised in the report.

Plaintiffs hit EV startup hard

Burns said during the company’s earnings call he believed his company was the only one to begin automated assembly this early in the pre-production process.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Matthew Rico, who identifies himself as Lordstown shareholder, “Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company’s purported pre-orders were non-binding; (ii) many of the would-be customers who made these purported pre-orders lacked the means to make such purchases and/or would not have credible demand for Lordstown’s Endurance; (iii) Lordstown is not and has not been ‘on track’ to commence production of the Endurance in September 2021; (iv) the first test run of the Endurance led to the vehicle bursting into flames within 10 minutes; and (v) as a result.”

Rico also is asking that his lawsuit be certified as a “class action” that would cover all of Lordstown shareholders damaged by the company’s misconduct.

Hindenburg Research, a short-seller group, claimed the EV truckmaker either faked or overstated claims that it has advance orders for 100,000 of the electric pickups it plans to launch later this year. Further, the group described Lordstown CEO Steve Burns as a “con man.”

The tenor of the Hindenburg report echoes a study it put out last year on Nikola Corp., which also used a SPAC deal to go public, initially generating a big run up in its share price while also lining up a proposed alliance with General Motors.

Lawsuit targets Lordstown executives

Lordstown beta welding roof

CEO Burns expressed enough confidence in his team that he upped the expected production levels to 60,000 units.

The lawsuit names several Lordstown executives, starting with CEO William Burns, as defendants. The suit is built around the statements, including documents the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and various press releases by the company that “were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.”

“The Individual Defendants, because of their positions at the Company, possessed the power and authority to control the content and form of the Company’s annual reports, quarterly reports, press releases, investor presentations, and other materials provided to the SEC, securities analysts, money and portfolio managers and investors,” contend in the filing.

Instead, the lawsuit said Lordstown executive “authorized the publication of the documents, presentations, and materials alleged herein to be misleading prior to its issuance and had the ability and opportunity to prevent the issuance of these false statements or to cause them to be corrected,” going back to when the company went public via a SPAC in August 2020.

The SPAC generated $675 million in cash, money it is using to finish development of its new Endurance model. Lordstown officials claimed they received more than 100,000 non-binding production reservations from commercial fleet users, which the aforementioned Hindenburg report contends is untrue.

The lawsuit added the defendants from Lordstown “knew that the adverse facts” had not been disclosed and were being concealed from the public and that the positive representations being made were false and misleading, making them liable for damages suffered by shareholders.


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FCA-PSA Set to Kick Off New Year With Completion of Merger

Fiat Chrysler and PSA shareholders are expected to approve the merger of the two companies forming Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automaker.

This story has been updated to reflect the merger’s approval in separate votes by Fiat Chrysler and PSA investors.

The deal is done; shareholders at both PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles now have voted to approve a merger creating the world’s fourth-largest automaker by sales volume, Stellantis.

Shareholders overwhelming approved the deal that was first announced in late 2019 — but only received final regulatory approval late last year. The $58 billion deal won an “Aye” vote from 99.15% of FCA shareholders, while 99.85% of PSA investors approved of the deal during an online meeting. Following the vote, the two companies said the merger process is expected to be completed by January 16.

Officials with the two companies have promised that the merger will yield a significantly stronger automaker, helping drive down manufacturing costs while also making it easier to prepare for the many changes set to sweep through the auto industry in the coming decade, notably the shift to electrified and autonomous vehicles. But the merger also raises numerous questions, starting with the broad range of brands each of the new partners bring to Stellantis. There has been widespread speculation that the new company could eliminate some of the weaker marques, including FCA’s namesakes, Fiat and Chrysler.

(FCA CEO Manley won’t be on the board after merger with PSA is completed.)

Carlos Tavares, PSA (left) and Mike Manley, FCA, shake hands following the signing of the merger agreement between the two companies in 2019.

“Stellantis will be a sort of conglomerate of brands, some great and some not so good and most very regional,” wrote Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois. “The merger will be a good opportunity for a reset.”

The auto industry has been facing enormous pressures in recent years and FCA’s former CEO, the late Sergio Marchionne, began looking for an additional alliance partner even before completing the merger that formed Fiat Chrysler Automobiles a decade ago. During his tenure the plan was rebuffed by some of the industry’s giants, including Volkswagen and General Motors. It was Marchionne’s successor, Mike Manley, who took things a step further.

Manley came within hours of completing a merger with the largest French automaker, Renault, but the deal unraveled just before it was set to be announced. Months later, FCA made the surprise announcement that it was talking with PSA, parent of brands including Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and Vauxhall.

A formal plan was announced in December 2019 but it faced a variety of challenges, including issues raised by the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, the process moved forward, the proposed partners clearing the last regulatory hurdles as 2020 drew to a close.

Under the agreement, FCA’s Chairman John Elkann – heir to Fiat’s founding Agnelli family – will retain that title at Stellantis. So too will Carlos Tavares, the highly regarded CEO who has been credited with turning around the French company since joining it six years ago, keep his role. Significantly, PSA was able to put the Opel/Vauxhall unit into the black

FCA CEO Mike Manley will not retain a seat on the board of directors after the merger.

within a year after acquiring the German-based operation from General Motors. Under GM, Opel had been in the red for nearly two decades.

(FCA, PSA pick name for post-merger company: Stellantis.)

Nonetheless, PSA has plenty of challenges of its own. Among other things, it is trying to find the formula for returning to the critical U.S. market it left nearly three decades ago.

As Stellantis, the new enterprise will need to move quickly to catch up with key competitors racing to bring electric vehicles to market. These include not only established manufacturers such as VW and GM but new entrants like Tesla and Lucid.

The partners set some tough goals going into the final phase of the merger. Early on, officials estimated they could squeeze out savings of 3.7 billion euros, or $4.5 billion, through various efficiencies. They later upped that to 5 billion euros, or about $6.1 billion. But the pandemic has made the business of forecasting, whether unit sales, revenues or earnings, exceedingly difficult. And the expectation of analysts, such as IHS Markit, is that it will take to nearly mid-decade before global sales come close to pre-pandemic levels.

The industry has been seeing an acceleration of mergers, acquisitions and less overarching joint ventures and alliances in recent years. But FCA provides a textbook example of how they don’t always pan out. The U.S. side, Chrysler entered into a supposed “merger of equals” in 1998 but, a decade later, found itself discarded by the German side of DaimlerChrysler AG. It would have been allowed to go bankrupt by the Obama administration in 2009 were it not for Fiat pulling together a rescue plan.

Fiat Chairman John Elkann will retain the same role in a merged company.

Then, under CEO Marchionne, FCA spent years chasing an even bigger alliance.

Curiously, the company that originally defined the concept of “bigger-is-better” reversed course following its own brush with Chapter 11. GM not only sold off the endlessly struggling Opel unit but also pulled out of an assortment of once important markets, including Australia, Russia and South Africa. After the formation of Stellantis, GM will slide back one spot and become only the world’s fifth-largest automotive manufacturer.

(FCA, PSA formally lock merger into place.)

“The auto industry has been chasing size and consolidation for years, but it’s been slower in coming than many would like to see,” Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois told investors. “The question is whether GM, Toyota and Renault-Nissan have provided evidence that there may be limits to this strategy.”

GM Pushes for Round Two in Legal Battle with Fiat Chrysler

GM asked a federal judge to reinstate its lawsuit against rival Fiat Chrysler.

General Motors Co. has asked the federal judge that dismissed its lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. to reinstate the lawsuit, claiming it has new evidence.

The automaker asked Judge Paul Borman to reconsider his earlier judgement on the alleged racketeering charges GM levied at Fiat Chrysler. Borman initially characterized the case as a “waste of time,” but allowed it to proceed.

“These new facts warrant amending the court’s prior judgment, so we are respectfully asking the court to reinstate the case,” GM said in a statement. GM asked for $1 billion in damages in the initial lawsuit.

(GM lawsuit against FCA tossed out by judge.)

Fiat Chrysler has maintained that GM’s lawsuit is without merit.

The company said it’s come across “reliable information concerning the existence of foreign bank accounts” used in the alleged scheme, GM attorneys revealed in affidavits in the filing, according to the Detroit News.

Borman tossed the suit last month after an appeals court kicked it back to him, saying GM supposed “injuries” weren’t a result of the FCA’s alleged violations.

“GM’s failure to plead sufficient facts showing that it was proximately harmed ‘by reason of’ Defendants’ alleged § 1962 violations means that it did not state a cognizable civil RICO claim,” Borman said in his 30-page ruling that reviewed GM original allegations and legal arguments.

(Appeals court nixes GM-FCA CEO pow-wow.)

GM filed a lawsuit last year claiming rival Fiat Chrysler had corrupted officials of the United Auto Workers union in a bid to gain a competitive advantage, has been dismissed by a federal judge in Detroit.

After federal investigators had spent several months uncovering a corrupt bargain between FCA executives and UAW officers, GM decided it had been aggrieved and filed suit.

Alphons Iacobelli, right, was previously sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for his role in the FCA-UAW training fund scandal, including paying off now-deceased UAW VP General Holiefield’s mortgage.

Specifically, GM alleged that Fiat Chrysler “corrupted” collective bargaining agreements between GM and UAW in 2009, 2011 and 2015 by paying millions in dollars in bribes, and that the alleged scheme was authorized at the highest levels of Fiat Chrysler, including the company’s late Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne.

The lawsuits claim that throughout the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that FCA employed a bribery scheme to obtain favorable terms in its collective bargaining agreement with the UAW.

(FCA hit with series of class-action lawsuits over bribery charges.)

Ultimately, the investigation has led to the conviction of three FCA executives and more than a dozen UAW officers and officials as well as the widow of the former UAW officer in charge of union’s FCA section when the bribery and other corrupt acts that served as the basis of the GM lawsuit took place.

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