Former attorney: Toyota withheld evidence.

• Position: E-DISCOVERY - Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc.

Toyota illegally concealed information about its vehicles' structural integrity in hundreds of rollover death and injury cases, a former attorney for the automaker has accused.

In a federal racketeering lawsuit filed in July (but only made public in late August), Dimitrios Biller, former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., alleged that Toyota withheld evidence in a "ruthless conspiracy" to hide information revealing its "vehicles' structural shortcomings," CBS News reported.

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Biller also claimed in the suit that his complaints about Toyota's legal misconduct when he was an employee resulted in his termination.

In a statement sent to CBS News, Toyota called Biller's charges "inaccurate and misleading." "Toyota takes its legal obligations seriously and works to uphold the highest professional and ethical standards," the company stated.

Toyota lawyers have brought a motion to seal the complaint, saying it contains privileged and confidential information Biller has no right to divulge, according to CBS News.

Biller worked for Toyota between 2003 and 2007. He helped defend the automaker in rollover lawsuits that blamed injuries and deaths on instability and weak roofs of the company's SUVs and pickups. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, names Toyota Motor Sales, Japanese parent Toyota Motor Corp., and five senior executives and lawyers of Toyota Motor Sales.

According to CBS News, Biller's 75-page complaint says that when he came to Toyota after nearly 15 years in private practice, he was "surprised and alarmed" to discover the company was not producing e-mails and other electronically stored information to plaintiffs as he said was required. According to the lawsuit...