GM Stuns Fiat With Lawsuit Alleging Marchionne Bribery Role (1)

General Motors Co. surprised Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV with a racketeering lawsuit that for the first time implicates late Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne in a years-long corruption scheme that already has landed car executives and labor leaders in jail.

The suit filed in federal court alleges Fiat Chrysler inflicted billions of dollars in damages by bribing United Auto Workers’ brass for competitive advantages that the union denied to GM. The illicit payments benefited Fiat Chrysler starting in 2009, when the two companies were emerging from government-backed bankruptcies, through 2015, when Marchionne conspired with the UAW to attempt a takeover ...