Takata agrees to guilty plea, will pay $1B for hiding defect

DETROIT (AP) — Takata Corp. has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal charge and will pay $1 billion in fines and restitution for a years-long scheme to conceal a deadly defect in its automotive air bag inflators.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit announced the plea deal on Friday, the same day it unsealed a six-count grand jury indictment against three former Takata executives who are accused of executing the scheme by falsifying and altering test reports that showed the inflators could rupture.

"Automotive suppliers who sell products that are supposed to protect consumers from injury or death must put safety ahead of profits," said Barbara McQuade, the U.S. Attorney in Detroit, whose office worked on a two-year investigation into the company.

Once senior Takata executives did learn that employees had falsified air bag reports, in 2009, they failed to take disciplinary action against those employees until 2015.