DETROIT – General Motors appears to have adopted a scorched earth policy when it comes to its lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
A judge recently dismissed a racketeering claim, but GM is unrelenting -- now asking the judge to reconsider. GM said new evidence has emerged.
READ: GM alleges Fiat Chrysler spent millions to bribe UAW leaders
GM claims millions of dollars were stashed away in foreign bank accounts to pay bribes to those plotting against it.
“Bribes were paid to individuals working within GM, who then stashed them in secret overseas accounts,” GM said in a court filing. “Accounts containing millions of dollars in countries such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtestein, Italy, Singapore, the Cayman Islands and others.”
GM named former UAW-GM Vice President Joe Ashton, who has plead guilty in the current scandal, first and foremost. They said he took bribes while negotiating national contracts to specifically prevent GM from getting benefits FCA received in the same talks.
It even provides a graphic to show the losses it took. GM also claims while Ashton sat as the UAW’s member on the General Motors board, he acted as a paid mole, giving GM proprietary information to FCA.
GM goes on to say, it was former UAW president Dennis Williams who put Ashton up to all of this. But then, General Motors brought in the name of the long retired former UAW president Ron Gettelfinger, who has to date not been involved in the scandal.
The complaint reads: “The payoffs through these foreign accounts to Ron Gettelfinger, Ashton, and Williams further confirm the control that FCA exercised over the UAW.”
The UAW responded with its own statement.
“The UAW is unaware of any allegations regarding illicit off-shore accounts ... Nor has the U.S. Attorney’s Office, or anyone else, ever raised this type of allegation with the UAW.”
“If GM actually has substantive information supporting its allegations, we ask that they provide it to us so we can take all appropriate actions.”
Gettelfinger hasn’t said a word publicly in a decade put out a letter this afternoon. In it, he said, “I have never had control over any financial account in any foreign country, nor has any member of my family.”
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