In what was termed as a “systematic disregard of Law” by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Toyota Motor was accused of withholding evidence it was required to present in litigations the company had faced, and instead paid higher settlements to complainants to avoid revealing information.
The documents from Lawyer Dimitrios Biller who represented Toyota Motors from 2003 to 2007, showed that Toyota refused to release documents as they would have allowed the cases against Toyota to go forward. The allegations by Republican Edolphus Towns, who heads the congressional panel investigating ‘unintended acceleration in Toyota’s cars’, came two days after Akio Toyoda in his first appearance repeatedly apologized and said “You have my personal commitment that Toyota will work vigorously and unceasingly to restore the trust of our customers.
“The company was hijacked, some years ago, by anti-(Toyoda) family, financially oriented pirates,” said Jim Press, former Toyota US chief. Without naming anyone Press, the only non-Japanese to serve on Toyota’s board said the persons in charge “didn’t have the character to maintain a customer first focus” and were more focus on cost cutting and savings.