The U.S. Justice Department is unlikely to charge General Motors Co. with bankruptcy fraud, closing off one avenue for bringing a criminal case against the automaker over a deadly ignition-switch defect, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan continue to weigh charging GM with criminal wire-fraud after determining the automaker likely made misleading statements and concealed information about the faulty switch in communications with regulators and others. The office has been leading an investigation into GM’s handling of a defect linked to more than 120 deaths. Criminal investigators also were probing whether GM knowingly concealed information about the safety defect from the court where it filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a $50 billion government rescue in 2009 but haven’t uncovered evidence the company did so. The court restructuring shielded the Detroit auto maker from certain lawsuits, spurring complaints among plaintiffs’ lawyers and consumers who lost the ability to sue for damages related to the ignition-switch defect.
