Boss Knew He Was on the Take, Former Honda Executive Says

A former American Honda Motor Co. sales executive said Monday that he believes the company’s president knew he was on the take.

Stanley J. Cardiges, testifying at the trial for two former colleagues accused of taking kickbacks from Honda dealers, said Koichi Amemyia probably knew about 1991, when Amemyia gave him a bonus of $20,000 or $25,000.

“He said, ‘You don’t need this,’ ” said Cardiges, the key prosecution witness.

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 Honda models.

Cardiges said he believed Amemyia’s statement could have meant Amemyia knew the bonus was “so small that I didn’t need it.”

Cardiges also testified that Amemyia once asked a dealer and former Honda executive to help him get a Mercedes. Cardiges said he had heard rumors that Amemyia received a $50,000 painting and had a California dealer repair cars belonging to friends and relatives.

“I was told dealers were taking care of him,” Cardiges said.

Cardiges said he had no proof that Amemyia did anything wrong or that Amemyia was giving tacit approval to wrongdoing by others.

But he did agree during cross examination that Amemyia “got more than somebody off the street.”

The company, which maintains it knew nothing about kickbacks, dismissed Cardiges’ testimony.

“This is pure hearsay, gossip and speculation that is part of a desperate defense strategy to place the blame elsewhere,” spokesman Jeffrey Smith said from Washington.

Federal prosecutors have called the company the main victim in the case. Cardiges and 19 others have pleaded guilty in the scheme.

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 in 1992, he balked at admitting he had done anything wrong.

Cardiges is testifying against John Billmyer and Dennis Josleyn, who says Japanese managers condoned the payoffs.

Billmyer faces up to five years in prison; Josleyn faces 30. Cardiges’ plea to racketeering and other crimes could get him 35 years in prison.