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Volkswagen's CEO Was Told About Emissions Software Months Before Scandal, Says Report (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess was told about the existence of cheating software in cars two months before regulators blew the whistle on a multi-billion exhaust emissions scandal, German magazine Der Spiegel said. Der Spiegel's story, based on recently unsealed documents from the Braunschweig prosecutor's office, raises questions about whether VW informed investors in a timely manner about the scope of a scandal which it said has cost it more than $27 billion in penalties and fines.
Responding to the magazine report, the carmaker reiterated on Saturday that the management board had not violated its disclosure duties, and had decided to not inform investors earlier because they had failed to grasp the scope of the potential fines and penalties. Citing documents unsealed by the Braunschweig prosecutor's office, Der Spiegel said Diess was present at a meeting on July 27, 2015 when senior engineers and executives discussed how to deal with U.S. regulators, who were threatening to ban VW cars because of excessive pollution levels. Diess, who had defected from BMW to become head of the VW brand on July 1, 2015, joined the July 27 meeting with Volkswagen's then Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn to discuss how to convince regulators that VW's cars could be sold, a VW defense document filed with a court in Braunschweig in February, shows.
Responding to the magazine report, the carmaker reiterated on Saturday that the management board had not violated its disclosure duties, and had decided to not inform investors earlier because they had failed to grasp the scope of the potential fines and penalties. Citing documents unsealed by the Braunschweig prosecutor's office, Der Spiegel said Diess was present at a meeting on July 27, 2015 when senior engineers and executives discussed how to deal with U.S. regulators, who were threatening to ban VW cars because of excessive pollution levels. Diess, who had defected from BMW to become head of the VW brand on July 1, 2015, joined the July 27 meeting with Volkswagen's then Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn to discuss how to convince regulators that VW's cars could be sold, a VW defense document filed with a court in Braunschweig in February, shows.
These bozos deserve everything they get. Corporations and bankers only ever learn by losing money and in cases like this the perfect learning mechanism is being slapped with great big massive fines. One good thing to come out of VW's shenanigans, however, is that the 'using fossil fuels is patriotism' and 'there should be an environmentalist hunting season' crowd has been purged from VW leadership and replaced with people who are sinking EUR 34 billion into electric vehicle technology and are planning to take that to EUR 72 billion by 2022. Same is probably true for a whole other bunch of car companies that didn't get caught but did notice the massive fines VW got. I'm no fan of the VW leadership but at least this is a move in the right direction.
The idea that this great fraud was perpetrated by some rogue engineers never made much sense.
Even if we assume this is an accurate depiction of when the CEO was told, there almost had to be some degree of lower management complicity in this from the outset, even if it was in the form of setting impossible goals for employees, much like the Wells Fargo fake accounts debacle.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway