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German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

politico.eu

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Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#131

Post by rurban »

aeyes wrote: post #39
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because with large companies, blame and accountability gets spread thin over a wide area till it evaporates, so everyone gets away with it.

Ultimately the CEO is responsible. To me it doesn't even matter if the CEO knows about it or not, if not the company has poor governance which is the CEOs full responsibility. Wirecard CEO has been arrested since 2020, will probably sit for another 10 years.

Which CEO? Of the 4 big German manufacturers, which conspired do implement these special cheats, or Bosch which implemented this cheat, and supported it as such?

Or the politicians who wrote into law to able to use such a cheating device?

That would be 5 CEO's plus at least 2 german politicians, plus 20 more politicians in all other countries which selected this cheating EU standard.

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#132

Post by throwaway81523 »

This article is better though nothing I've seen names the executives (different media law maybe).

https://www.dw.com/en/4-ex-vw-managers-guilty-of-fraud-over-...

"A former head of diesel engine development was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. The former head of drive electronics received two years and seven months in prison.

The highest-ranking defendant, a former member of the Volkswagen brand's development board, received one year and three months' probation. A former department head was sentenced to one year and ten months' probation."

Doesn't sound like it got near the C suite.

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#133

Post by pkaye »

FireBeyond wrote: post #69
wil421 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diesel engines in the US have stricter regulations. I doubt folks in the EU will start buying PowerStrokes, Cummins, or Duramaxes anytime soon.

How so? There is no way any of those engines would pass emissions in the EU. How are US regulations even stricter?

Back in 2015 US EPA NOx emission limits were tighter than EU regulations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal#U...

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#134

Post by OJFord »

ferguess_k wrote: post #83
hermitcrab wrote: post #5

Good for Germany, but it is all too rare to see bad corporate behaviour punished like this. Steal £10k from a company, and you will probably go to prison for a long time. Start a company and steal billions from your customers and/or the tax payer, and you will probably get away with it. I believe Iceland was the only country to jail bankers after the 2008 banking disaster. We are still waiting for the British governm…

窃(Steal)钩(hook)者(people)诛(gets a death sentence) 窃(Steal)国(country)者(people)侯(gets to be the king)

Is this missing a sentence like 'there is a saying in mandarin:'?

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#135

Post by PaulKeeble »

Two engineers that I know of got the following: James Liang got 40 months Schmidt was sentenced to 84 months

Then the executives Jens Hadler four and a half years in prison Hanno Jelden two years and seven months

Prosecutors are still investigating and trying to shake out more. This appears to be a wide conspiracy within VW.

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#136

Post by joker99 »

paganel wrote: post #123
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers still have to breathe though. I'd be totally fine if diesel engines were completely phased out. In the US we somehow can't even get rid of those idiots that retune their engines for "rolling coal".

You can’t wage modern war without diesel engines, those trucks won’t drive themselves close to the front-lines (and, no, electric-powered trucks in times of war are a terrible idea, and the ones powered by gasoline are a lot less efficient and don’t provide the same torque numbers).

Valid points you’re making. Let me make a counter point: as a German, I’ve seen tanks on 5/6 occasions in my life, never using their own engines. But at the same time, I’ve seen hundreds of cars every day and breathed their emissions. It’s totally fine if tanks continue using diesel, but cars, trucks etc. not using diesel (or gas) engines anymore will have a measurable effect on my health

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#137

Post by teruakohatu »

Drunk_Engineer wrote: post #116

The headline says "execs" but I don't see any Board members getting prison terms. Martin Winterkorn, the CEO, has basically escaped prosecution altogether.

It would be unlikely (not impossible) that board members would be briefed about ongoing criminal behaviour, and certainly not something so deep into operations as how the ECU is being programmed.

Can a board member be reasonably responsible for the actions of tens of thousands of employees if they have not explicitly enabled or condoned criminal behaviour?

The person that would benefit the most would be a senior executive who stands to gain a promotion, bonus or land an even better job elsewhere.

A former prime minister of my country was fined over $6 million for being on the board of a company what traded while insolvent. Not a prison sentence but a harsh penalty for someone that was not super rich (as far as I am aware).

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#139

Post by selfselfgo »

speff wrote: post #118
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stealing from employees is just normal business in the US. $1.5 billion in stolen wages were recovered for US workers between 2021 and 2023. Imagine how much wasn't recovered. It is often the least able to take action/most in need of every dollar of their income that are stolen from. You can tell a lot about a society by how it treats those with the least power versus those with power. https://www.epi.org/publication…

That seems like a really small number? To compare - total US retail shrink in those years combined was a little over $300B[0] - averaging about 1.5% of sales. $1.5B seems like a rounding error when talking in those terms. [0]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-retailers-cite-rising-theft-...

[dead]

Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

#140

Post by MrDresden »

arthurcolle wrote: post #24
hermitcrab wrote: post #5

Good for Germany, but it is all too rare to see bad corporate behaviour punished like this. Steal £10k from a company, and you will probably go to prison for a long time. Start a company and steal billions from your customers and/or the tax payer, and you will probably get away with it. I believe Iceland was the only country to jail bankers after the 2008 banking disaster. We are still waiting for the British governm…

They jailed 1 banker lol

> They jailed 1 banker lol

You've been incorrectly informed.

As reported back in 2018[0], 36 individuals had already received a cumulative jail sentence of 96 years, with still more cases ongoing when this report was written.

[0]: https://www.visir.is/g/20181632401d/36-manns-i-samtals-96-ar...

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