Dimitrios Biller is a former lawyer for Toyota who sued the company in July 2009, claiming that while he worked there, Toyota frequently withheld relevant documents in product-liability suits filed against it. According to Biller, US Toyota units destroyed engineering and testing evidence that would have impacted over 300 suits over SUV rollover accidents.
Did Toyota also destroy evidence that it knew about the faulty accelerators and brakes that caused so many models to be recalled recently, but did nothing to protect consumers from these defects? The answer is almost certainly yes.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, [Biller] claims the automaker regularly hid evidence of safety defects from consumers and regulators, and fostered a culture of "hypocrisy and deceit."
"You have to understand that Toyota in Japan does not have any respect for our legal system," said Dimitrios Biller, who worked as managing counsel for Toyota’s American operations from 2003 to 2007. "They did not have any respect for our laws."
"They were hiding evidence, concealing evidence, destroying evidence, obstructing justice," said Biller. –ABC News
According to Biller, when Toyota didn’t like the results of a rollover test it had performed, rather than change the vehicle, it would simply destroy the test results and order a new test until it got the results it wanted.
So Toyota doesn’t respect the American legal system, eh? Maybe paying out billions of dollars in lawsuits over its defective, dangerous vehicles, its negligence and its cover-ups will teach Toyota some respect.
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