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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

#51

Post by AnimalMuppet »

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.

I believe "knew or should have known" is the legal statement. Ignorance (either deliberate or accidental) doesn't get you off the hook.

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

#52

Post by jxjnskkzxxhx »

SoftTalker wrote: post #47
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…

SBF is in prison, so it happens sometimes.

Usually it happens only if you steal from investors. Stealing from consumers is fine.

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

#53

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #47
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…

SBF is in prison, so it happens sometimes.

SBF stole from rich people. Strategic error on his part.

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

#55

Post by lucianbr »

izacus wrote: post #28
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…

The question is, whether VW as a German company is now going to end up being beaten by US competitors which could do even more nasty stuff unpunished.

It has been some years since VW had to give up cheating on emission tests. Were they beaten by US competitors during this time? I have not read any news about it.

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

#56

Post by JHer »

wildrice wrote: post #7

I always thought there was a tremendous irony in Germany’s far left heavily protesting Tesla for Elon’s speech while their own corporate giant committed widespread emissions fraud for years

I don't understand. It's not like the far left is Volkswagen's fan club?

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

#57

Post by wil421 »

izacus wrote: post #28
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…

The question is, whether VW as a German company is now going to end up being beaten by US competitors which could do even more nasty stuff unpunished.

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

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

#58

Post by thatguy0900 »

anovikov wrote: post #27
fanwood wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, it's just that rich people are mostly above the law most of the time

When it comes to criminal offences, they are pretty much within the law, well except they can afford better lawyers so usually get away with minimum legally possible punishment. Companies and the concept of limited liability exists to make innovation possible. No one will start a startup knowing they will have their house confiscated and go to prison if it fails. And, because majority of money businessmen make is the…

Why would you go to jail unless you're doing something illegal? Are you honestly saying startups should be legally exempt from pollution laws and allowed to cheat brazenly on commissions tests by public agencies? It's fair for rich people to just lose some income(and still be rich) for crimes while poor people have to go to jail is honestly a unhinged take

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

#59

Post by weard_beard »

jxjnskkzxxhx wrote: post #50
bombcar wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luigi as privatized accountability?

If powerful people were afraid they would be a lot less unhinged.

It’s true. The only check on most corporate fraud is an engineer with an Annecdote of real consequences.

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

#60

Post by xtracto »

callc wrote: post #46
ogogmad wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did Zuckerberg do? Maybe he did do something, but hearing "Boo Fuckerberg!" over and over again doesn't imply he's guilty of anything. It's similar to hearing "it's the Jooos" a bajillion effing times and then believing it without asking for any substance.

Zuckerberg profits by replacing normal human social interaction with ad-infested parasitic addictive pseudo-socialization that drives a sobering % of the population to worse mental states

Unfortunately, a immoral as that sounds, it's not illegal.
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