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NNadir

(38,622 posts)
Wed May 27, 2026, 08:08 PM 14 hrs ago

Three Californians File a 5.7 Billion Dollar RICO Lawsuit Against Toyota's "Hydrogen Bomb."

$5.7 Billion RICO Lawsuit Says Toyota Ran A Hydrogen Crime Family

Toyota faces a RICO lawsuit alleging organized fraud and hydrogen safety failures, with claims that its Mirai sedans posed serious risks.

...Plaintiffs claim Toyota hid major hydrogen safety defects in the Mirai. 75 cars were reportedly destroyed by contaminated hydrogen.
A new class action lawsuit filed in California against Toyota is demanding an extraordinary $5.7 billion in damages, accusing the company of running a criminal operation to hide serious safety flaws in its Mirai hydrogen sedan. The complaint also levels a striking charge of “organized fraud” against the automaker...

...Originally written to chase down mob bosses, the RICO Act is now being used to accuse Toyota of running what can be best described as a white-collar version of organized crime...

The Allegations

It claims that the automaker, along with its financing arm and several California dealerships, coordinated to market and finance vehicles that technicians privately described as “ticking hydrogen bombs...”

...According to the complaint, the company and its hydrogen partners concealed multiple faults in the Mirai, including a risk of hydrogen leaking near hot engine components, which could pose an explosion hazard. Additionally, the lawsuit contends the Mirai can experience sudden power loss, acceleration, and braking failures.

Beyond technical issues, it criticizes Toyota Motor Credit Corporation for what it calls “aggressive financial collection tactics,” alongside frustrations over California’s sparse and unreliable hydrogen refueling infrastructure...


And here I am having heard that "hydrogen," overwhelmingly made by the steam reformation of fossil fuels is going to save the world.

Should I be disappointed? Well, probably not. Afterall, I'm an old guy and I've been reading all about the magic "hydrogen economy" for half a century now, but still wouldn't know where to buy a "hydrogen car." In fact I've never even seen a hydrogen car other than in fairly transparent fossil fuel greenwashing ads run here as posts.

If, by the way, if you search Google News for "hydrogen explosion" - I've done this - you will hear all about the real hydrogen bomb, the one made with tritium generated by lithium and neutrons.

This "hydrogen bomb" is lawyerly rhetoric.
4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Three Californians File a 5.7 Billion Dollar RICO Lawsuit Against Toyota's "Hydrogen Bomb." (Original Post) NNadir 14 hrs ago OP
Japanese enid602 13 hrs ago #1
...and, should they collect on the suit... NNadir 12 hrs ago #2
A 5.7 Billion Dollar RICO suit... That sounds like the sort of lawsuit our beloved President would launch OKIsItJustMe 10 hrs ago #3
I am not a legal scholar and cannot comment on the merits of their suit. NNadir 2 hrs ago #4

NNadir

(38,622 posts)
2. ...and, should they collect on the suit...
Wed May 27, 2026, 10:25 PM
12 hrs ago

...the people of Nanjing should sue for collected money.

War is atrocity ratcheting, always was, still is, and always will be.

I'm an atheist, but I wish there could be a special hell for people who start wars.

OKIsItJustMe

(22,201 posts)
3. A 5.7 Billion Dollar RICO suit... That sounds like the sort of lawsuit our beloved President would launch
Thu May 28, 2026, 12:17 AM
10 hrs ago

Do they claim they to have been injured by Toyota?

NNadir

(38,622 posts)
4. I am not a legal scholar and cannot comment on the merits of their suit.
Thu May 28, 2026, 07:53 AM
2 hrs ago

It strikes me as a product liability suit, whereby they allege false advertising of an unsafe product.

I can't say I'm impressed by the plaintiffs. After all they were dumb enough to involve themselves in this fossil fuel marketing greenwashing game. By contrast, I understand hydrogen, how dirty it is when manufactured and how much potential danger is involved given its poor physical properties.

The big lie by which this junk is marketed is that hydrogen is made on a meaningful scale by electrolysis using so called "renewable energy." That's is an obviously fraudulent claim but is one we see here all the time, usually accompanied with slick videos produced by some dishonest marketing team.

Again, I have no admiration for the plaintiffs, nor for the fact that their cars have become huge paperweights because hydrogen is a risky material, has a record of causing explosions and thus an infrastructure that can, as California's has, collapse quickly.

They should have done some homework. After all we've had 50 years of "hydrogen economy" bullshit and to the extent it exists it's a subpriduct for the agricultural industry responsible for the release of 900 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. Have a nice day.

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