Cardiges: American Honda Chief Knew of Kickbacks
Stanley James Cardiges, a former top American Honda Motor Co. sales executive, said Monday that he believes the company’s president knew he was on the take and asked for a Mercedes and other gifts himself.
Cardiges, a Laguna Hills resident, is testifying as the key prosecution witness in the federal trial of two former colleagues accused of taking kickbacks from Honda dealers throughout the 1980s. Cardiges had been charged in the case but pleaded guilty in February.
His testimony Monday veered from the line he took last week when he told jurors that no one above the level of his onetime boss and predecessor in Honda’s top U.S. sales job, defendant John Billmyer, knew of the illegal activities.
On Monday, however, Cardiges said he believes that Koichi Amemyia, then American Honda’s president, knew of his involvement in 1991 when Amemyia gave him a bonus of $20,000 or $25,000.
“He said, ‘You don’t need this,’ ” Cardiges testified. He told jurors that he believed Amemyia’s statement could have meant Amemyia knew the bonus was “so small that I didn’t need it.”
Cardiges, American Honda’s top sales executive from 1988 until he was forced to resign in 1992, said he was earning $100,000 to $125,000 a year but got $2 million to $5 million in payoffs from dealers for helping them obtain hot-selling cars.
Cardiges also testified that Amemyia once asked a dealer who was a former executive of the company to help Amemyia get a Mercedes. And, Cardiges said, he had heard rumors that Amemyia received a $50,000 painting from a dealer and had a dealer in California repair cars belonging to friends and relatives.
“I was told dealers were taking care of him,” Cardiges said.
He told jurors he has no proof Amemyia did anything wrong or that Amemyia’s actions amounted to tacit approval of wrongdoing by others.
Last week, Cardiges said he and other executives went to great lengths to conceal the bribes from top managers. Cardiges said that even after Japanese managers confronted him with evidence of kickbacks and forced him to resign, he balked at admitting he had done anything wrong.
Attorneys for Cardiges could not be reached for comment Monday, but before Cardiges pleaded guilty, one of his lawyers vowed to defend him by showing that Cardiges’ bosses knew about and condoned the widespread bribery scheme despite written company policies prohibiting such activities.
Cardiges, 49, pleaded guilty to racketeering, conspiracy and fraud for accepting millions of dollars in cash and gifts in return for helping dealers obtain hot-selling Honda and Acura cars. He is testifying at the U.S. District Court trial of former colleagues Billmyer of Raleigh, N.C., and Dennis Josleyn of Penn Valley, Calif.
With Cardiges pleading guilty, Josleyn’s lawyers, Paul Twomey and Mark Sisti, have taken up the former executive’s contention that the company’s top Japanese management knew about and endorsed the gift-giving.
American Honda, based in Torrance, said it knew nothing about the kickbacks. “This is pure hearsay, gossip and speculation that is part of a desperate defense strategy to place the blame elsewhere,” company spokesman Jeffrey Smith said.
Federal prosecutors have blamed the scheme on a handful of rogue executives and characterized American Honda as the main victim because it faces a host of lawsuits from dealers who contend they lost income because they didn’t pay kickbacks.
So far, a federal grand jury in New Hampshire has indicted 24 people in the case. Most of them have pleaded guilty, including six from Orange County, and most are former American Honda executives.
