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| GM agrees $900m settlement for faulty ignition switches | GM agrees $900m settlement for faulty ignition switches |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| General Motors has agreed to pay $900m (£580m) to end a criminal inquiry into its failure to recall vehicles with faulty ignitions. | General Motors has agreed to pay $900m (£580m) to end a criminal inquiry into its failure to recall vehicles with faulty ignitions. |
| The car maker was being investigated for not checking millions of cars, despite staff knowing for more than a decade about the defect. | |
| The fault has been linked to more than 100 confirmed deaths. | |
| It could shut down engines, disable power-assisted steering and brakes and prevent airbags working. | It could shut down engines, disable power-assisted steering and brakes and prevent airbags working. |
| GM has admitted it did not alert regulators and the public, failing to issue a timely recall of vehicles. | |
| The US government has agreed not to seek a conviction in exchange for the settlement and the appointment of an independent monitor at the company. | |
| The settlement was disclosed in papers filed on Thursday at a Manhattan federal court. | |
| The largest carmaker in the US did not begin recalling some 2.6 million cars worldwide until February 2014, after years of avoiding any acknowledgement of the problem. | |
| Claims fund | |
| This quickly ballooned to nearly 30 million cars by the end of 2014, as the company began actively recalling any cars that could possibly have defects. | |
| It also set up a claims fund to compensate victims who could prove they suffered harm as a result of the defect. | |
| GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009 during the height of the financial crisis. | |
| GM's boss Mary Barra, who took over in January 2014, is keen to show she has changed the culture within the company. | |
| Previously she has said that GM engineers, managers and workers know they must come forward once a problem has been identified or they will be held responsible. |