Seoul , Dec 24 (UNI) South Korea's transport ministry on Monday said that it would file a criminal complaint against German automaker BMW with state prosecutors for allegedly delaying recalls and concealing defects that caused dozens of vehicles to catch fire earlier this year.

It intended to impose a $9.9 million fine.

"The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Korea intends to submit the details of the BMW investigation to the prosecutor's office on January 24 and impose a fine of 11.2 billion South Korean won based on the results of the investigation," the statement from transport ministry said.

The ministry also considered that the company knew about the problem back in 2015 because in October that year, BMW had set up a special working group to study a defective element of the exhaust gas recirculation system, while the company itself claimed that it had not learned about the defects until July 2017.

Around 40 BMW cars have reportedly caught on fire in South Korea in 2018, with the largest number of incidents occurring during summer months. As a result, the company was forced to recall about 172,000 vehicles.

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