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Volkswagen Engineer Pleads Guilty in US Diesel Emissions Probe (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the guilty-as-charged dept.

A Volkswagen AG engineer on Friday pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the Justice Department's probe into the German automaker's diesel emissions scandal -- the first person charged by U.S. authorities in the environmental probe, reports Reuters. From the report:James Liang, who has worked for VW VLKPF since 1983 and was part of a team of engineers who developed a diesel engine, was charged in an indictment made public on Friday with conspiring to commit wire fraud and violating U.S. clean air laws. The 62-year-old engineer from Newbury Park, Calif., appeared in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Friday and entered into a plea agreement that includes his cooperation with the government in its investigation. The indictment says Liang conspired with current and former VW employees to mislead U.S. regulators about the software that allowed the automaker to evade American emissions standards.

5 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. scapegoat much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WTF? why does some engineer get thrown under the VW bus?

    1. Re:scapegoat much? by boristdog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      C-level motto: "Always have a patsy on hand."

      I have had management try to make me into a patsy before. Always save your emails. Don't do anything unless you have it in writing.

    2. Re:scapegoat much? by GuB-42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Text files that are timestamped and stored on a server, often with multiple copies.
      I don't know how often e-mails are used in court but if you don't have an original signed document, this is probably the next best thing.

  2. How many counts? by jaymemaurice · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So if he is responsible for the creation "defeat device", is he responsible for the installation on every vehicle sold in the US?

    --
    120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
  3. Always starts at the bottom by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    WTF? why does some engineer get thrown under the VW bus?

    Because they are the easiest to get to. Hopefully they'll work their way up the ladder. It's almost always hardest to get to the guys at the top and you usually have to start at the bottom and work up. He'll probably get a lighter sentence in exchange for giving up a bigger fish and then the bigger fish will get a deal to give up the next guy up the food chain. Eventually you get to the top but it takes a while and a lot of work.