As widely reported on Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice want to know exactly how Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is reporting its new-vehicle sales.

The automaker released a statement confirming reports that first arrived from Automotive News and Bloomberg, reiterating its procedure for how the company shares metrics within its financial statements.

“In response to press reports (Monday), FCA confirms that it is cooperating with an SEC investigation into the reporting of vehicle unit sales to end customers in the U.S.,” the automaker said in a statement obtained by Auto Remarketing. “In its annual and quarterly financial statements, FCA records revenues based on shipments to dealers and customers and not on reported vehicle unit sales to end customers. 

“Inquiries into similar issues were recently made by the U.S. Department of Justice,” the company continued. “FCA will cooperate fully with these investigations.”

And those investigations certainly are what’s intriguing to Kelley Blue Book analyst Akshay Anand.

“Much of the FCA investigation is in wait-and-see mode right now as details are still coming to light,” Anand said in a message to Auto Remarketing. “If FCA did engage in illegal practices, it’s likely we will see stiff fines and possibly more.

“If the investigation uncovers nothing incriminating, it will be business as usual, especially for the stars of the FCA group — Jeep and Ram,” Anand added.

According to a news release posted on its investor relations site, FCA highlighted June U.S. new-model sales of 197,073 units, a 7-percent increase compared with sales in June of last year that totaled 185,035 units. Officials added the month marked the group’s best June sales in 11 years.

The OEM went on to mention the Jeep, Dodge and Ram Truck brands each posted year-over-year sales gains in June compared with the same month a year ago. The Jeep brand’s 17 percent increase was the brand’s best June sales ever, while Ram achieved its best June sales in a decade.

When the sales figures arrived on July 1, Autotrader senior analyst Michelle Krebs said, “It’s the same old story at Fiat Chrysler. Jeep and Ram with trucks, vans and utilities carry the load for the company. Despite big incentives, Fiat cars still won’t budge as they have the highest inventories in the industry.”

Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Rebecca Lindland cheered the automaker’s performance because her team generated its own metrics.

“This is great to see, especially since Fiat Chrysler’s average transaction prices grew by nearly 4 percent year-over-year, according to our own sources,” Lindland said. “Jeep is carrying the company, outselling Dodge and Chrysler combined both in the month and year-to-date. The Pacifica is supporting Chrysler as it sells off the 200 sedan, and the Caravan and Durango are carrying the Dodge brand as car sales struggle.

“The power of the Jeep label is personified in sales of the Renegade, where monthly sales are outpacing its sister Fiat 500X’s year-to-date sales,” she went on to say.

Now that turning of new metal is being questioned by federal officials, and it’s not the first time this year the OEM has had to tackle the issue.

Back in January, the automaker acknowledged the filing of a lawsuit in an Illinois Federal Court by two U.S. dealers located in Illinois and Florida. The dealer plaintiffs were two stores of the Ed Napleton Automotive Group.

“The lawsuit makes allegations of false sales reporting by FCA US.  Notwithstanding numerous requests to provide evidence of this alleged activity, the plaintiffs have refused to substantiate their claims,” OEM officials said at the time. “FCA US carried out an investigation of the facts, and has determined that these allegations are baseless and plaintiffs were notified of this fact before they filed suit.”

The automaker elaborated about the activity by this franchised dealer group.

“This lawsuit is nothing more than the product of two disgruntled dealers who have failed to perform their obligations under the dealer agreements they signed with FCA US,” OEM officials continued. “They have consistently failed to perform since at least 2012, and have also used the threats of litigation over the last several months in a wrongful attempt to compel FCA US to reserve special treatment for them, including the allocation of additional open points in the US FCA network. 

“FCA US will continue to resist these pressures, safeguarding the relationship of trust and openness which governs its relationship with its dealers,” the company went on to say. “FCA finds it unfortunate and disappointing that reputable media would be willing to be used in questionable litigation practices without a full understanding of the facts.”