An arbitrator has awarded Toyota the equivalent of R17.4-million in damages against a former in-house attorney who turned into a whistleblower and sued the carmaker.
A retired federal judge ruled, on 5 January, that Toyota is entitled to R17.4-million in damages for unauthorised disclosures of confidential information by Dimitrios P. Biller, and R670 000 in punitive damages.
Toyota General Counsel Christopher Reynolds said in a statement that the award is appropriate given Biller's “misleading and inaccurate allegations about Toyota's conduct.”
Biller contended that Toyota withheld evidence in cases involving rollover accidents. He took thousands of pages of documents with him when he left, some of which were subpoenaed last year by a U.S. congressional investigation of the carmaker.
A message for Biller's attorney, Jeffrey Allen, was not immediately returned. -Sapa-AP