BMW pays $18 million fine in the USA for dubious sales figures

The German automaker is said to have made misleading information about its US sales figures. BMW cooperated in the investigation and thus received reduced sentence.

The German car manufacturer BMW is said to be dearly for misleading information on its sales figures in the USA. The company and two subsidiaries pay a fine of 18 million dollars (15.4 million euros) as part of a settlement, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Thursday (local time).


According to the authority, BMW had pimped up its sales volume figures in the US auto market from 2015 to 2019 using various dubious methods. This should have achieved internal targets, and the company also wanted to compete better with other premium providers in public.

Upon request, BMW confirmed that it had accepted the fine. The company was happy to have the matter out of the world, it said in a statement. A US spokesman for BMW claimed, however, that the company had not been accused of deliberate misconduct by the SEC and that most of the alleged offenses had already been committed more than three years ago. BMW announced that the SEC investigation began in late 2019.

The Securities and Exchange disturbed, according to its communication especially because the US subsidiary BMW Capital have made the dubious information on the sales figures and investors and rating agencies over. As a result, misleading information was spread when issuing corporate bonds with a volume of around 18 billion dollars.

However, the SEC emphasized that BMW had cooperated well in the investigation despite difficulties due to the corona pandemic. This was taken into account in the sentence. A year ago, the agency had already fined the Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler $40 million for misleading investors with allegedly souped-up sales figure.

Author: Nabeel K
Email: nabeel@wheelsjoint.com



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