JANUARY 17, 2006

A thought about the Toyota business

Although there have been a number of names which have leaked out about charges being laid against people who have worked for Toyota, there has been no official word from the German police nor from the prosecution service.

Although there have been a number of names which have leaked out about charges being laid against people who have worked for Toyota, there has been no official word from the German police nor from the prosecution service and our sources say that the three names which have so far been listed are not the only ones on the list of people who have been charged. We hear that there are others and that these almost certainly include current members of the team, in addition to those who have departed.

One must be careful to remember that being charged means very little and that we will not know for sure whether there are strong cases against those involved until there have been preliminary hearings after which a judge will decide which cases go on to trial and which are dropped. In the Italian case there were three men charged but only two were sent to trial and it may be a similar story in Cologne.

However, one thing is quite certain: we have not heard the last of the story.