Federal investigators have found that General Motors acted criminally when it didn’t disclose ignition defects that killed at least 104 people, a report said Friday.

The company is currently negotiating what could be a record penalty with the Justice Department, which is expected to exceed the $1.2 billion paid last year by Toyota for concealing unintended acceleration problems, according to The New York Times.

The dangerous switches emerged because GM wanted its small-car ignitions to “feel like it was a European sports car or something,” an internal ­investigator found.

But the new switches can unexpectedly turn off the engine, which kills power steering — making cars harder to control — and disables airbags in crashes.

The settlement could be reached as early as this summer, according to the Times.