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Top-level
@johnefrancis @artemesia @jalefkowit (Switching over to my science-y/engineering-y account) I am an Environmental Engineer, with a specialty in hazmat releases and have been involved in many enforcement cases like this where I'm called in to investigate and report. (Obviously orders of magnitude smaller cases than this, and obviously I'm not involved in this specific case so everything I say is speculation.) 3 comments
As for the workers, I actually think they are probably sitting in a pretty good position. Cummins agreed to a recall of 600,000 Ram trucks. The workers are going to be plenty busy, and safely employed, for years. The customers will probably also be able to file a class action suit. Meanwhile, the tax payers get to avoid a lengthy, costly, and risky trial. (With a very pro-business SCOTUS, do you really want to roll those dice?) So, I think this is likely as big of a regulatory win as a regulated free market can get. And it's definitely a big win. |
Gregory's Server
@johnefrancis
That said, burning 3 years of profits in fines is not nothing for a company like this. Looking at their financials, they didn't have $1.7+ billion in cash on hand, so they will probably have to take on some pretty expensive debt to pay this off or sell off assets. There will probably be a pretty good shake up of the board from the share holders, likely including additional shareholder lawsuits. The responsible executives are going to be dealing with this daily for years.