Report: General Motors Company May Face Criminal Charges

General Motors Company

may get hit with federal criminal wire fraud charges related to its defective ignition switch recall, according to a report Tuesday. http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-weighs-wire-fraud-charge-against-general-motors-1433853283?mod=e2tw GM traded recently at $35.22, up $0.24 cents. Prosecutors are modeling the charges on a $1.2 billion settlement with Toyota Motor Corp

in March of last year, according to The Wall Street Journal report, which cited "people familiar with the matter." GM, which held its annual meeting earlier Tuesday in Detroit and separately rejected a merger proposal from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV

, has said it's fully cooperating with investigators. Toyota got charged with wire fraud for its false statements about products safety. A settlement could come by the end of summer or early fall according to Journal report, which said GM's penalty "would likely exceed $1 billion." Criminal charges have appeared likely against GM since at least last month, when the New York Times reported that Justice Department investigators had uncovered criminal wrongdoing in the case. The Times said a settlement could come this summer. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/business/gm-inquiry-said-to-find-criminal-wrongdoing.html But the Detroit Free Press said at the time that settlement discussions weren't underway. http://www.freep.com/story/money/2015/05/22/general-motors-justice-department-ignition-switch-deaths/27820247/ GM last year paid a $34 million regulatory fine related to the recall of about 2.6 million vehicles with faulty ignition switches, which could disable safety airbags. As of June 5, GM's compensation fund counted 474 claims of fatalities stemming from the defects, with 111 listed as eligible for compensation and an additional 22 under review. http://www.gmignitioncompensation.com/docs/program_Statistics1.pdf Among 4,342 injury claims of injury as of June 5, GM said that 331 were eligible for compensation. GM said in its April quarterly report that it is faced with various investigations and complaints from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission Transport Canada and 50 state attorneys general. More than 100 shareholder class action suits were pending, along with and nearly 200 economic-loss and personal injury federal lawsuits related to the ignition switches or other defects.