Hydrogen Mafia: Toyota faces $5.7 billion RICO lawsuit

A $5.7B lawsuit filed in Federal court alleges that Toyota operated what amounts an organized, fraudulent enterprise that intentionally concealed known, catastrophic safety defects associated with their hydrogen fuel cell-powered Toyota Mirai sedans.

Originally passed as part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is designed to help prosecutors go after people or companies that commit a pattern of crimes as part of an ongoing organization or enterprise — like the Mafia (which doesn’t exist), or large-scale fraud operations at a corporation.

That RICO statute is now at the center of a new case against Toyota. In it, the plaintiff’s attorneys argue that Toyota knowingly engaged in a decade of fraud surrounding the hydrogen fuel cell-powered MIrai sedan that jeopardized public safety and breached the terms of a previous DOJ settlement.

The case, filed by Jason M. Ingber, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the US District Court for the Central District of California, is a 142-page RICO complaint alleging that Toyota, its financing arm, and its California dealerships coordinated conspired to market and finance HFCEVs that technicians allegedly referred to as, “ticking hydrogen bombs.”

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“This lawsuit isn’t about a simple defect, it’s about organized fraud,” argues Mr. Ingber. “Toyota engineered, financed, and controlled California’s hydrogen network, then used that control to hide safety failures and financial harm to consumers.”

According to the complaint, Toyota and its hydrogen partner, FirstElement Fuel (True Zero), intentionally concealed evidence of:

• hydrogen leaks near hot engine components, creating explosion risks
• sudden power loss, acceleration, and braking failures leading to collisions and injuries
• a collapsing hydrogen infrastructure, leaving drivers stranded for weeks without access to fuel
• aggressive financial collection tactics by Toyota Motor Credit Corporation, targeting owners of inoperable vehicles.

The suit further argues that Toyota’s concealment of these facts violates a 2014 Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), in which the company admitted to concealing safety defects surrounding the highly publicized incidents of unintended-acceleration and agreed to report all (emphasis mine) future safety issues truthfully.

Ingber is seeking treble damages for the class, injunctive relief, and a federal order halting Toyota’s hydrogen enterprise, citing a continuing pattern of mail and wire fraud.

“Toyota built its reputation on trust,” Ingber said, in a statement. “Our case will show how that trust is violated and why consumers deserve accountability now.”

The case is titled Aminah Kamran et al. v. Toyota Motor Corporation et al., and is docketed as Case No. 2:25-cv-09542.

Electrek’s Jo’s Take

Despite the ebb and flow of media chatter about hydrogen fuel, the simple fact is that America’s hydrogen infrastructure isn’t, and what little infrastructure we did have took a hit last January, when Shell abruptly closed its publicly-accessible charging stations. That left precious few open and operational hydrogen stations available for public use – and the ones that are open don’t seem to be reliable, with Car Complaints reporting that Toyota Mirai owners say they can’t find working hydrogen refueling stations while others complained they had to park their cars for weeks because they couldn’t find hydrogen.

As a result, with supply issues impacting the few stations that are still available (see the DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center map, below), it’s tough to argue that Mirai buyers may not have gotten what they were expecting – regardless of the killer, 50% off plus $15,000 in free hydrogen fuel deals that were being offered.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CBS News, via CarScoops; Car Complaints.

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