Judge Dismisses Criminal Case Against GM Over Faulty Ignition Switches

A federal judge has dismissed a criminal case against General Motors over its handling of ignition switch issues.

The case, brought against GM in 2015, was dismissed after a request filed to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan by federal prosecutors.

The automaker entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York back in 2015 after being charged with wire fraud and concealing information from government officials over the ignition switch defect linked to 124 deaths. The agreement required GM to pay a $900 million fine and accept three years of oversight from an independent monitor, Reuters reports.

Those three years are now up and prosecutors say General Motors has complied with all the agreement’s terms.

In the years since the ignition switch issue emerged, General Motors has recalled 2.6 million vehicles and paid in excess of $2.6 billion in penalties and settlements. Included in this sum was $120 million GM agreed to pay in order to settle claims from 49 U.S. states in October 2017.

The states in question asserted that GM knew about the safety risk posed by its ignition switches as early as 2004, but decided against fixing the problem. Federal officials claim GM could have resolved the issue with a new key design that would have cost less than $1 per vehicle.

No one from General Motors has been criminally charged over the matter.

However, while the government’s case against GM has been dismissed, the car manufacturer is still facing civil lawsuits over the ignition switch saga.