--- title: HONDA SCAM BIGGEST EVER description: In the largest U.S. commercial bribery case in history, two former executives of American Honda were convicted of accepting $15 million in kickbacks from dealers... canonical: https://time.com/archive/6924744/honda-scam-biggest-ever/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 1995-06-01T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-22T23:16:03.302Z article:section: U.S. og:title: HONDA SCAM BIGGEST EVER og:description: In the largest U.S. commercial bribery case in history, two former executives of American Honda were convicted of accepting $15 million in kickbacks from dealers... og:url: https://time.com/archive/6924744/honda-scam-biggest-ever/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: HONDA SCAM BIGGEST EVER twitter:description: In the largest U.S. commercial bribery case in history, two former executives of American Honda were convicted of accepting $15 million in kickbacks from dealers... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # HONDA SCAM BIGGEST EVER by [TIME](/author/time/) Jun 1, 1995 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jun 1, 1995 4:00 AM CUT In the largest U.S. commercial bribery case in history, two former executives of American Honda were convicted of accepting $15 million in kickbacks from dealers nationwide between 1979 and 1992 in exchange for access to cars and dealerships. Convicted of conspiracy, former West Coast Honda sales manager Dennis Josleyn faces up to 30 years in prison while former senior vice president John Billmyer faces up to five years. Both plan to appeal the verdict. While American Honda says this “closes the book on a painful and difficult period in our history,” Jocleyan contends the company condoned his actions. American Honda still faces millions of dollars in lawsuits from dealers disadvantaged by the scam. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6924744/honda-scam-biggest-ever/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6924744/honda-scam-biggest-ever/"},"headline":"HONDA SCAM BIGGEST EVER","datePublished":"1995-06-01T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-22T23:16:03.302Z","description":"In the largest U.S. commercial bribery case in history, two former executives of American Honda were convicted of accepting $15 million in kickbacks from dealers...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6924744/honda-scam-biggest-ever/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6924744/honda-scam-biggest-ever/","name":"HONDA SCAM BIGGEST EVER"}}]}] ```