WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department says it has ended its investment in Chrysler LLC after Italian automaker Fiat SpA purchased the U.S. government’s remaining holdings in the auto company. Fiat paid $560 million to the Treasury Department for the government’s 98,000 shares. Fiat has run the company since it emerged from bankruptcy protection in June 2009.
Treasury provided a total of $12.5 billion to Chrysler and its financing arm after the recession hampered auto sales and sent Chrysler and General Motors to the brink of collapse. The funds came from the government’s $700 billion bank bailout fund.
Since then, $11.2 billion of the assistance has been repaid, Treasury says. Chrysler repaid $5.1 billion in loans from the government in May. Treasury said it likely won’t recover the remaining $1.3 billion.
