Apple And Ford Settle Fraud Allegations, Deny Wrongdoing In Separate Cases

Both Apple Inc AAPL and Ford Motor Company F settled allegations of fraud on Friday in separate cases which they both denied any wrongdoing.

Apple Denies Misleading On China Revenues

Apple has agreed to pay $490 million to a group of investors who accused CEO Tim Cook of making misleading statements in 2018 about the company’s sales outlook.

Cook said in a 2018 analyst call that Apple was facing revenue pressure in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia and India, but added that China was “not in that category,” CNBC reports.

Three months later on Jan. 2, 2019, Apple cut its quarterly revenue forecast by up to $9 billion citing U.S.-China trade tensions and causing the shares to tumble 10% in one day.

Apple reached the settlement with investors in a class-action suit led by the UK’s Norfolk County Council, which alleged that Cook had defrauded them by concealing weakening iPhone demand in China.

Cook and Apple denied any wrongdoing or responsibility for any investor losses, but said in the court filing that the company would settle the claim to avoid the cost and distraction of litigation.

A preliminary settlement was filed with the U.S. District Court of Oakland, California.

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Ford Denies Disguising Vehicles Claim

Meanwhile, Ford has agreed to pay $365 million to settle a civil lawsuit from the Justice Department, which accused the car manufacturer of tax fraud by disguising imported cargo vans as passenger vehicles, which incur lower import tariffs, according to Reuters.

The company, which denied the charges, was alleged, between 2009 and 2013, to have imported Transit Connect utility vans from Turkey declaring them as passenger vehicles — installing “sham rear seats” to make them appear as people carriers.

The alleged actions allowed Ford to pay import taxes of just 2.5% on the vehicles, rather than the 25% levy imposed on cargo carriers, the Justice Department said.

The DOJ stated that around 163,000 Transit Connects were imported from Turkey over the period.

The $365 million settlement included $185 million for restitution of unpaid taxes and the remainder in penalties.

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Image created using artificial intelligence with Midjourney.