GM has accused the trust it used during its 2009 bankruptcy sale of plotting with attorneys in an attempt to make the car manufacturer pay $1 billion in stock as part of a class-action settlement.
AutoNews reports that the accord is part of a settlement between the plaintiffs and the General Unsecured Creditors Trust that’s been created to resolve hundreds of personal-injury cases triggered by GM’s faulty ignition switches.
If the settlement is approved by a judge, the trust will be forced to pay $15 million to plaintiffs while also accepting $10 billion in undisputed claims. If this were to happen, total approved claims from the case would exceed $35 billion, the mark allegedly stipulated in GM’s 2009 sale as the threshold. If that threshold is reached, GM has to contribute $1 billion in stock to help pay for the claims.
However, General Motors alleges that the trust has only accepted the $10 billion in claims to force the automaker to pay.
In a statement, the firm said “This contrived scheme won’t work. We will aggressively protect our rights and our shareholders, and will work to hold the GUC Trust and plaintiffs accountable for their bad faith and improper actions.”
General Unsecured Creditors Trust attorney Steve Berman refutes these claims, saying “this is what GM bargained for…It’s working exactly the way it’s supposed to work.”
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