Former VW Managers Sentenced Over Emissions-Cheating Scandal
www.occrp.org
A German court has sentenced two former Volkswagen executives to prison and handed suspended sentences to two others for their roles in the company’s diesel emissions scandal.
  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.worldEnglish
    331·
    2 months ago

    The dieselgate scandal is why I am so disappointed when I heard that Volkswagen outsold Tesla in Europe for the number one spot since the start of the year. I have been hoping it would a more scrupulous company (and non-Chinese EV manufacturer) that took the number one spot for European EV cars sold.

  • wulrus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    651·
    2 months ago

    One insanity in the following years was how they thought people still wanted their next generation diesel.

    I’ve been working for them in the 2010s with the department to organise the staff car fleet. We ordered many electric vehicles years ahead from production and planned it all around electric vehicles: Charging stations, operating distance, some hybrids for long distance, software to calculate trips etc.

    Then a few months before we needed them, they said: We overproduced on the latest diesel generation and can’t keep up with the demand for electric vehicles, so we have to sell the ones you ordered. You can either go with a Tesla (for official Volkswagen business trips!) or have the diesel for free.

    It felt like there was a hysteria: Decision makers got it in their heads that the “hype” for electric vehicles was ideology-driven and not something people with buying power actually wanted today or in the near future. Bit like the republican administration thinking that “woke” is our main problem. Meanwhile, huge research and development departments did come up with the electric vehicles they sell today (and fully working hydrogen prototypes you won’t see in a store, just to be safe) and must have been quite frustrated that so few were produced.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
    1632·
    2 months ago

    I’m used to executives being above the law. I had to read the article to be sure the title wasn’t clickbait.

    • slaacaa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      2 months ago

      They are, the post title is false. The people going to jail are middle managers

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    well I guess there are some places where the law does not always serve the rich, that is mildly good news

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    Is that why my VWAGY and VWAPY have been slowly recovering from their late 2024 slump? Because the old managers were crooks but they’re out now?

    Man, what a wild world.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        Ah, right then, the European stock market continues to shift up and down beyond any comprehensible logic. I am saying this unironically.

      • FreeBooteR69@lemmy.caEnglish
        111·
        2 months ago

        How about we don’t bring back corporal punishment. I get the sentiment, but i’d rather our justice system didn’t turn into a torture system.

    • slaacaa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      2 months ago

      Seems like it also doesn’t happen in Germany, as the post title doesn’t match the article.

      The two people sent to jail are middle managers (Head of XY), not executives.

      • magnetosphere@fedia.io
        614·
        2 months ago

        While I see your point, it’s important to note that the people jailed in the US were called “engineers”, not “executives”.

          • magnetosphere@fedia.io
            112·
            2 months ago

            I don’t know if they’d have many, but I’d expect them to have at least a few. North America is a major market.

            • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.worldEnglish
              53·
              2 months ago

              Their subsidiary companies do, but VW is a German company, the “executives” are ALL gonna be there dude… and those US execs would be doing what THEIR oversea “executives” want them to, so there’s still people above those who may be overseas. So calling them “executives” would be wrong since there is people above them still.

              The point is, your “note” doesn’t matter mate.

                • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  3·
                  2 months ago

                  Yes… the article is about the German company dude…… not the “Volkswagen group” and not “Volkswagen international” or whatever includes their multinational groups. To assume otherwise is just weird, they never mentioned anything but their German company.

                  Terms aren’t mutually exclusive… you don’t think those engineers held executive roles? They just weren’t executives of Volkswagen.

                  They would have had to say executives of Volkswagen (insert whatever specifics of the subsidiary), for it to be the correct term. Engineers is simpler and easier and is the proper way to express the situation.

                  Your “point” muddies the water and needs to bring on multiple additional pieces of information, which would also need to be described. Most people would know these engineers held executives roles, with some part farther down the “executive” chain.

                  You can be an engineer for Volkswagen, while also being the executive for Volkswagen US NW division, but it’s irrelevant to the article and requires more completely unnecessary information, so in the effort of good journalism and brevity….

              • masterofn001@lemmy.caEnglish
                53·
                2 months ago

                Every multinational corp has execs for each region.

                President and VP of insert region operation is a common title given to EXECS of foreign corps.

                • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  21·
                  2 months ago

                  Yes, what do you think subsidiary means…?

                  These engineers clearly held executive roles, they just weren’t with the Volkswagen (germany) so they would have had to clarify their subsidiary. For journalism this was the correct wording. If they wanted to call them execs, it would have had to go into detail about Volkswagen (Us particular division and reasons)

                  If you’re talking about Fritolays, you don’t just go and say execs when talking about “lays” or “Doritos” subsidiaries, you would use “engineers” or whatever other work they held to simplify it.

                  It’s an unnecessary distinction for non mutually exclusive exclusive terms, to use “executives” would lead to more confusion and that would be shit journalism….

                  It’s an article about the German Volkswagen, why are you assuming it’s about the multinational subsidiary? You can be an engineer for Volkswagen, and their subsidiary, but that requires explaining if you want to call them that. Which is totally unnecessary since the article wasn’t about them.

        • MajesticElevator@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          The fallout forced CEO Martin Winterkorn to resign, although he denied wrongdoing. U.S. authorities issued an arrest warrant for Winterkorn in 2018, but Germany does not extradite its nationals.

          Unless I misunderstood something?

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          122·
          2 months ago

          You can be both. Schmidt was general manager of VW’s U.S. Environment and Engineering Office.

          As much as I like to see consequences, I would rather have just seen a very large fine put toward environmental purposes than prison time. Save prison for people who pose a direct danger to the public.

          • magnetosphere@fedia.io
            24·
            2 months ago

            I would agree, but with one significant condition:

            the fine would have to be large enough to be an effective punishment, and serve as a deterrent. A company as valuable as VW would have to pay an enormous fine.

            • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
              171·
              2 months ago

              For funsies the justice department fined Meta fifty million dollars. Meta made that back by the time your eyes got to the end of this sentence.

      • thefartographer@lemm.eeEnglish
        82·
        2 months ago

        Nah, I get what you’re saying, but we’re used to engineers and regular workers getting arrested here. We’ve got one of the most… comprehensive?.. prison systems in the world. It’s just so rare to find executives and anyone making over $300k suffer any real consequences.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1311·
      2 months ago

      I long for the day that ANYTHING close to this happens in the USA

      I guess you’ve good news, then.

      Across the Atlantic, two former VW engineers — Oliver Schmidt and James Robert Liang — are already serving prison sentences in the U.S. Schmidt, who once led VW’s environmental office in the U.S., was sentenced to seven years after initially denying guilt but later reaching a plea deal. Liang received 40 months after cooperating with prosecutors.

      • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        This is the most unbelievable part: a us court held management responsible for criminal behavior? Did that not pay their fines? Did no one have a spare jet to offer?

        • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
          91·
          2 months ago

          Neither were the people in Germany.

          The court sent the former head of diesel engine development behind bars for four years and six months, and the former head of powertrain electronics to two years and seven months. Two others — Volkswagen’s former development director and a former department head — received suspended sentences, according to Der Spiegel and Deutsche Welle reports from the Braunschweig courtroom.

          The (now ex-) CEO of VW, Winterkorn, is a fugitive from justice in US – the reason he isn’t in prison in the US is because he’s hiding in Germany, and Germany doesn’t extradite its nationals. IIRC from memory back during the incident, he’s facing a total of over two hundred years in potential sentence from the charges, though some of that would probably run in parallel, were he convicted, and I assume that in practice, there’d be some sort of plea deal.

          EDIT: Maybe it was over one hundred, not two hundred. I distinctly remember trying to figure out whether the sentences could run in parallel when reading an article about it at the time. In practice, he’d probably plea bargain it down, but there also is no parole for federal sentences in the US, so he wouldn’t be getting out early, either.

          EDIT2: Also, because he’s a fugitive and it’s a federal crime:

          https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3290

          18 U.S. Code § 3290 - Fugitives from justice

          No statute of limitations shall extend to any person fleeing from justice.

          So I expect that he’s probably going to stay in Germany for the rest of his life, unless he can find some other location that wouldn’t extradite him (Russia?)

          • ascense@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            According to Wikipedia, he should have a criminal trial in Germany starting this year, so it’s possible he will still get sentenced there as well.

      • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
        86·
        2 months ago

        To salvage the argument, it’s quite possible this would have been different if they were from GM rather than VW.

        • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          2 months ago

          It most likely would‘ve. Just look how quickly US courts started to turn Monsanto into shreds the very second Bayer bought it. They‘re after that so called stupid German money. Wouldn‘t work if it was American money.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
          102·
          2 months ago

          I am surprised VW clowns got the prison tbh but i am sure there is a reason why it actually happened here.

          System fucked up lol

      • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        53·
        2 months ago

        two former VW engineers

        Yeah, unless they are Chief Engineers, these two are just people who got caught in the churn.

        Wake me up when the President of US Operations gets sentenced to prison. Hell, I’ll even be okay with club Fed.

  • yucandu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1501·
    2 months ago

    In Canada we were told that putting execs in jail would “hurt jobs” and we had to pass a law that said they just get a fine instead.

    The execs in question were caught selling hookers to Qaddafi’s son.