3 Takata workers indicted, accused of hiding air bag defects

DETROIT (AP) — A federal grand jury in Detroit has indicted three former employees of Takata Corp., charging them with concealing deadly defects in the Japanese company's automotive air bag inflators.

The indictments on six counts of conspiracy and wire fraud were returned Dec. 7 and unsealed today, just hours ahead of a Justice Department news conference to announce a corporate penalty against the Japanese company.

The charges were filed against Shinichi Tanaka, Hideo Nakajima and Tsuneo Chikaraishi. All three were longtime executives at Takata until 2015, and all three worked both in Japan and the U.S. Takata's U.S. operations are headquartered in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

The trio deceived car makers who purchased the inflators "through false and fraudulent reports and other information that concealed the true condition of the inflators," according to the indictment. It alleges that the men knew back in 2000 that the inflators were not performing to specifications and had ruptured during testing.

Each was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud for transfers of funds that occurred between 2012 and 2015.

Takata air bag inflators can explode with too much force, spewing metal shrapnel into drivers and passengers. At least 16 people have been killed worldwide and more than 180 injured. The faulty inflators have touched off the largest automotive recall in U.S. history involving 42 million vehicles and 69 million inflators.