Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and other publications are reporting that BMW of North America is allegedly under the scrutiny of the S.E.C. The report says that BMW is facing an investigation in the United States by the Securities and Exchange Commission over a practice known as sales punching in the U.S.
Sale punching occurs when a company boosts sales figures by having dealers register loaner vehicles delivered to dealerships are reported as purchases to improve sales figures. BMW acknowledged the investigation, but wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the probe.
“We have been contacted by the SEC and will cooperate fully with their investigation,” the spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.
A spokesman for the S.E.C. said regulators could neither confirm nor deny an investigation for New York Times. The inquiry was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
BMW sold 322,862 vehicles in the U.S. in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 1.7 percent from a year ago, including the BMW and MINI brands.
Bloomberg says that “there are limits to how many vehicles a dealer can “sell” in this way. So even if malpractice is proven, it’s questionable whether it would have plumped up the carmaker’s sales volumes that much.”
Fiat Chrysler is another automaker was was investigated by the S.E.C. over sales practices. It ended up paying a $40 million fine. Fiat Chrysler, in settling the matter, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.
We don’t have the full story yet, but we will reach out to BMW of North America for an official statement.
Anyone who’s worked @ any dealership ever is not surprised, no wonder Tesla & BMW have been trying to break up dealership mafiosi for years. Dealerships are extortionate bs, but whoever bought a franchise decades ago pass them onto corrupt, incompetent (& now apparently criminal) next generations. Like the Trumps or the Bushes.
If Obama ran a dealership it would end up like Solyndra, Out of business. The guy was clueless about business along with the rest of the Socialists.
Okay Boomer.
Is “Ok Boomer” meant to be some kind of substitute for an argument? Be nice everyone ffs, it’s Christmas.
Unlike Dubya, Obama had bin laden killed & saved GM, you’d have preferred other way round?
THEY ONLY LEARNED ABOUT THIS NOW? It has been going on in the industry for many years! Like even 90 km “demos” registered as 2nd hand for additional subsidies…IMO is they want to stop this, they should legiferate the definition of DEMO and SECOND hand… For example, banning the low mileage use of vehicles for purpose of Demo, min 3,000 kms/3 months for used, never a <1000kms USED, etc..