GM agrees to $900M settlement over ignition-switch defect

General Motors agreed to pay $900 million as part of a Justice Department investigation into its failure to fix a deadly ignition-switch defect blamed for more than 120 deaths.

Federal prosecutors hit GM with a wire-fraud charge and a charge for “engaging in a scheme to conceal a deadly safety defect” from regulators. But those counts would be dismissed in three years if GM fixes its recall processes. GM’s official plea is not guilty.