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Volkswagen's Former CEO Charged In Germany Over Diesel Rigging (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Former Volkswagen AG head Martin Winterkorn was charged with serious fraud in Germany for his role in the diesel-rigging scandal that rocked the carmaker and cost it about $33 billion. The former chief executive officer was accused alongside four other managers of equipping vehicles sold to customers in Europe and the U.S. with a so-called defeat device, authorities in Braunschweig said Monday in an emailed statement. Fraud charges carry a sentence of as long as 10 years, and prosecutors also want to seize bonuses paid to the five men, which ranged from 300,000 euros for some managers to about 11 million euros for Winterkorn.
Allegations that VW wrongfully withheld information about the emission software used in its diesel cars have loomed over the company since the scandal first broke in 2015. The crisis involved as many as 11 million diesel cars worldwide, and shattered the Wolfsburg-based company's reputation. Winterkorn's lawyer Felix Doerr said prosecutors haven't given him full access to their files. Unless all information is disclosed to him, he said, he can't comment on the charges. Winterkorn was also charged with breach of trust for failing to swiftly tell authorities about the defeat devices used "to seemingly meet tightened emission standards for diesel cars and preserve market shares for VW or even increase them for the benefit of the company and the accused themselves," prosecutors said.
Allegations that VW wrongfully withheld information about the emission software used in its diesel cars have loomed over the company since the scandal first broke in 2015. The crisis involved as many as 11 million diesel cars worldwide, and shattered the Wolfsburg-based company's reputation. Winterkorn's lawyer Felix Doerr said prosecutors haven't given him full access to their files. Unless all information is disclosed to him, he said, he can't comment on the charges. Winterkorn was also charged with breach of trust for failing to swiftly tell authorities about the defeat devices used "to seemingly meet tightened emission standards for diesel cars and preserve market shares for VW or even increase them for the benefit of the company and the accused themselves," prosecutors said.
That probably means the evidence is extremely solid or they would have swept it under the carpet. Greed, stupidity and no integrity at all.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Trials were held? The hangings are when?
Expect the trial to take 5 years and end with the jury being dismissed cos they can't agree a verdict.
And slashdot will not post anything about it... unless maybe we can tie this to global warming somehow?
There aren't any political motivated prosecutions trying to swing a vote. That would never happen.
What has Notre Dame burning got to do with the VW "rogue engineer" being revealed as Old Man Winterkorn, the CEO?
Trump has already boasted that his vast knowledge of firefighting leads him to conclude the French aren't raking their forests properly.
ask the question backwards, and you will have your answer.
A CEO may actually be punished? Let's wait and see.
I recall a few years ago when the VW scandal first came out that VW kept claiming that it was due to "rogue engineers". I don't know whether this former CEO was one of the VW people who made the claim that the emissions rigging was just due to "rogue engineers". But whatever happened to that story? Has VW since then officially admitted to lying to the public on top of its emissions rigging, which *was not* just due to "rogue engineers"?
I know it is completely out of topic. But yeah it is terrible.
I grew up in Paris, I have been bummed out all afternoon.
and professional engineer certification will fix that so they can TELL PHB TO FUCK OFF MY certification is on the line
Yeah, I'm German, and we all do. "I was only following orders." didn't work back then, and it doesn't work now.
Every German judge probably knows half the Nürnberg trials by heart.
I still agree though, and raise you to "Why not both?"
Everybody who knew it, and kept working there, and didn't speak up, in fact. CEO, engineer, janitor if he knew.
And we should have a police that protects you (e.g. from being fired) if you do so, and proudly proclaims so.
Idealism only is idealism, and not reality, because some people do not WANT it.
On the line, that is.
No, you won't be just fired. That would be illegal in Germany. ... "caught" ... doing things harmful to the company.
You will be
And here are there two warnings you previously already "received".
This shall be the third one. Goodbye.
Don't say it doesn't happen.
It happened to a head of department in a Bertelsmann subsidiary that I worked at. One that uses more flour than a bakery.
So sweet and juicy and warm and soft and nicely tasting and dilatable and prolapsable!
Profit ... the part of the income you did not work for. The fraudulent part. The stolen / robbed part.
Yeah, no. Legalizing crime does not make them "not" criminals.
The theft can be measured. It's called inflation. And it's what effectively lowers your salary.
The message is clear. God didn't want a renovation of his house; he wanted an overhaul!
This is a site for nerds. We do not care about christians. We hate them. We hate everybody that is not us. They ostracized us, they made our lives a living hell. They condemned us to ridicule, loneliness and involuntary celibacy. They took away from us the girls we were in love with. They beat us up. They humiliated us. Why should we not hate them?
We have to fight their wars, might as well fight their fires also.
Is that the web of ropes and tackle that Germans are using now to attack sails to their newest generation of environmentally friendly semis? The diesel engine would still kick in if a truck becomes becalmed on the autobahn.
When are the bank executives going to be held responsible for the 2007-2009 financial meltdown? When are the Equifax executives going to face trial for insider trading?
I own one of the affected VWs and have been keeping tabs on this in owners forums. The inside scoop came out within just a few months of the scandal breaking. Basically Winterkorn didn't want to pay licensing fees to Mercedes for its DEF technology. So he instructed his engineers to get the TDI engines to meet emissions standards without DEF while maintaining power output, or else. When the engineers determined it was impossible, they did the only thing they could to keep their jobs - they cheated.
The VW engineers actually came remarkably close to succeeding. Here are the NOx emissions for the TDI vehicles before and after the fix. The pre-fix NOx emissions for the 2015 TDI engines are actually compliant with EPA limits (0.2 g/mi), and just barely above CARB's limit (0.04 g/mi). (The pre-2015 TDIs remain above CARB's limit after the fix. CARB covers this in their FAQ.)
But when will those responsible for the emissions cheating at all the other car makers who were caught be charged? It cannot be that only the company that admitted gets all the blame. Justice must be served.
German engineering advancements peeked a decade or so ago making it harder for these companies to generate growth for their shareholders, corner cutting and in this case, out right lying are quick ways of generating growth. It's a sad state for these German companies - Mercedes were recently found to be using false leather for their car seats - marketed as real leather of course - and had to make a payout to a guy in the UK who had his seats tested after purchase! Luxury ...
>/dev/null 2>&1
If you have to fight their wars, which isn't particularly true anyway, there's nothing unfair about that; after all they fought yours.
It is obvious that this cheating was approved by the then chairman and family head, Ferdinand Piech, who ran the company until 2015.
Piech was an engineer and engine specialist, famous for his detailed involvement in new designs.