U.S. auto safety regulator awards over $24 million to Hyundai Motor whistleblower By Reuters

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. auto security regulator introduced on Tuesday its first-ever reward to a whistleblower, handing out greater than $24 million to a former Hyundai Motor Co worker who offered key details about security lapses on the South Korean carmaker.

The award to ex-Hyundai Motor engineer Kim Gwang-ho is the largest ever in a whistleblower case within the auto sector globally, in line with legislation agency Constantine Cannon, which represented Kim.

It comes because the U.S. regulator, the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration (NHTSA), and the U.S. Division of Transportation put together to suggest rules associated to an automotive whistleblower program Congress created in 2015.

Kim reported to NHTSA in 2016 that Hyundai was failing to deal with a design flaw linked to its Theta II engines, which had been liable to seizing up and even catching hearth.

“This award is the utmost proportion allowed by legislation,” NHTSA mentioned in an announcement asserting the award.

“Whistleblowers play a vital function in bringing info to NHTSA about critical security issues which might be hidden from the company,” mentioned Steven Cliff, NHTSA’s Deputy Administrator.

Citing an inside report from Hyundai’s high quality technique workforce to administration, Kim had informed NHTSA the corporate was not taking sufficient motion to deal with an engine fault that elevated the danger of crashes.

NHTSA discovered that Hyundai and its Kia subsidiary had delayed recalling affected autos, and that the automaker had offered inaccurate details about the issues.

In 2020, Hyundai and Kia’s U.S. items agreed to a file $210 million civil penalty after NHTSA mentioned they didn’t recall autos for engine points in a well timed trend.

“I’m happy that I’ve been justly compensated for the dangers I took to guard homeowners of those faulty vehicles, and grateful that the U.S.’s authorized system had a program in place to make this doable,” Kim mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday.

“I hope my reporting results in actual security enhancements, each at Hyundai and all through the business,” he added.

In 2017, U.S. security regulators started to analyze if the recollects had lined sufficient autos and had been executed in a well timed trend. That adopted the considerations reported by Kim to the U.S. auto security regulator.

The payout to Kim is the primary underneath the U.S. Motor Automobile Security Whistleblower Act, handed by Congress in 2015 to create a whistleblower reward program within the Division of Transportation for business insiders who present info to security regulators about defects in autos.

($1 = 1,181.8900 received)