DETROIT — General Motors filed a motion for reconsideration of its racketeering case against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, now alleging that FCA and co-conspirators are guilty of “corporate espionage” that directly harmed GM.
“New facts about the direct harm FCA caused GM have come to light and they are detailed in our amended racketeering complaint. 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’s racketeering suit, filed in November, accused FCA of coordinating a yearslong bribery scheme with UAW leaders to gain an unfair labor-cost advantage. Last month, U.S. District Judge Paul Borman dismissed the case with prejudice after calling it a distraction for the companies and a “waste of time and resources for the years to come.”
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later said Borman failed to consider other remedies and said his reasoning — that the lawsuit would distract the companies from dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and recent racial tensions across the country — was unrelated to the case at hand.
Monday’s filing, in U.S. District Court in Detroit, says FCA and co-conspirators used a broad network of foreign bank accounts containing millions of dollars in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Italy, Singapore and the Cayman Islands to directly harm GM.
GM points to UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who later joined GM’s board as the UAW Trust’s designee in 2014, former UAW President Dennis Williams and defendant Alphons Iacobelli, who left FCA in 2015 and then joined GM.
The accounts were “controlled in part by individuals purportedly acting on GM’s behalf” and reveal “a magnitude of bribery and illegal activity specifically targeting GM that was not previously known or reasonably knowable,” the filing said.
GM detailed Ashton’s role as a “paid mole” inside its boardroom and claimed that Iacobelli, after joining GM, funneled information to FCA. FCA provided Iacobelli and a family member with “millions of dollars” through funds currently in accounts in Italy, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Singapore, the filing said.
The funds were used as payment not only for his role in the alleged racketeering scheme, but also for protecting high-ranking FCA executives.
GM says Iacobelli continued to protect those executives even after he agreed to cooperate with the criminal investigation and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Labor Management Relations Act and filing a false tax return.
Iacobelli now is serving his five-and-a-half-year sentence in federal prison in Morgantown, W. Va., for his role in the scandal. His sentence is scheduled to be complete Sept. 8, 2023.
“The newly discovered evidence confirms that GM was the target of defendants’ scheme, as the scheme was directed not only through the UAW, but also from payments to individuals within GM to maximize the direct harm to GM,” the filing said.
Williams, meanwhile, has been implicated in the government’s ongoing investigation into UAW corruption but has been not charged with a crime. Ashton and former UAW President Gary Jones are awaiting sentencing in U.S. District Court in Detroit following their guilty pleas on corruption charges. Jones could face 10 years in prison but may also get a lighter sentence if he cooperates with the government.
FCA, which previously has called the suit meritless, didn’t immediately have a comment.
