BMW to pay $18 mn to US to settle claims it inflated sales figures

WASHINGTON- BMW AG and two U.S. subsidiaries agreed Thursday to pay an $18 million (£14.1 million) U.S. fine to resolve accusations that they disclosed misleading information about the German luxury automaker’s retail sales volume in the United States while raising approximately $18 billion from investors in corporate bond offerings.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said from 2015 to 2019, BMW inflated reported U.S. retail sales, which helped BMW close the gap between actual retail sales volume and internal targets and “publicly maintain a leading retail sales position relative to other premium automotive companies.”

It added BMW of North America “maintained a reserve of unreported retail vehicle sales — referred to internally as the ‘bank’ — that it used to meet internal monthly sales targets without regard to when the underlying sales occurred.”

The SEC probe started in late 2019, BMW said.