BMW has been asked to pay a fine of $18 million to settle allegations of inflating monthly US sales numbers for five years in a row. The US Securities and Exchange Commission stated that the German luxury carmaker kept a reserve of unreported sales that it drew on to meet monthly targets from 2015 to 2019. The same actions let BMW maintain a leading retain sales position among other automakers in the country.
The SEC said that 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.
“There is no allegation or finding in the Order that any BMW entity engaged in intentional misconduct," BMW said in a statement, adding it “attaches great importance to the correctness of its sales figures and will continue to focus on thorough and consistent sales reporting."
The SEC said BMW “paid dealers to inaccurately designate vehicles as demonstrators or loaners so that BMW would count them as having been sold to customers when they had not been."
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“BMW misled investors about its U.S. retail sales performance and customer demand for BMW vehicles in the U.S. market while raising capital in the U.S.," said Stephanie Avakian, the SEC director of the division of enforcement.
In September 2019, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and its U.S. unit agreed to pay $40 million for misleading investors about its monthly sales figures to resolve a separate SEC probe.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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