German Court Sends VW Execs To Prison Over Dieselgate Scandal (apnews.com)
- Reference: 0177817513
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2155250/german-court-sends-vw-execs-to-prison-over-dieselgate-scandal
- Source link: https://apnews.com/article/volkswagen-germany-diesel-emissions-court-fraud-3878fcf6c06c9574bf5bff8d31029f90
> The former head of diesel development was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, and the head of drive train electronics to two years and seven months by the court in Braunschweig, German news agency dpa reported. Two others received suspended sentences of 15 months and 10 months. The scandal began in September 2015 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation. saying that the company had rigged engine control software that let the cars pass emissions tests while they emitted far more pollution in actual driving.
>
> The company has paid more than $33 billion in fines and compensation to vehicle owners. Two VW managers received prison sentence in the U.S. The former head of the company's Audi division, Rupert Stadler, was given a suspended sentence of 21 months and a fine of 1.1 million euros ($1.25 million). The sentence is still subject to appeal. Missing from the trial, which lasted almost four years, was former CEO Martin Winterkorn. Proceedings against him have been suspended because of health issues, and it's not clear when he might go on trial. Winterkorn has denied wrongdoing. Further proceedings are open against 31 other suspects in Germany.
[1] https://apnews.com/article/volkswagen-germany-diesel-emissions-court-fraud-3878fcf6c06c9574bf5bff8d31029f90
[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/06/28/2342251/volkswagen-agrees-to-record-147b-settlement-over-emissions-cheating
Good (Score:2)
It's about time we see execs getting held accountable.
Re: (Score:3)
> It's about time we see execs getting held accountable.
Too bad for them they didn't get convicted in the U.S. at this time, they'd probably get pardoned. /cynical
And it would have only cost their moms $1M in $TRUMP coin: [1]Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mom Attended $1M Mar-a-Lago Dinner [thedailybeast.com]
> Florida healthcare executive Paul Walczak, who admitted to stealing money earmarked for his employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle, received a full and unconditional pardon from Trump on April 25.
> His release from prison came three weeks after his Republican donor mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1 million-per-head fundraising dinner, which promised face-to-face access to Trump at his South Florida club.
> The pardon spared Walczak from prison time, as he had yet to report to his 18-month sentence. It also meant he would not have to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution.
Maybe he'll find a good use for that $4.4M he now won't have to pay in restitution ... /s
[1] https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-pardoned-tax-cheat-after-mom-attended-1m-mar-a-lago-dinner/
"compensation to vehicle owners" (Score:2)
It's not vehicle owners they should be compensating, it's all the pedestrians who were ever passed by one of their cars.
Re: (Score:2)
Go to the polls and vote them out or run for office yourself
seems excessive (Score:2)
This seems absurdly protracted and draconian. The real problem was that the US EPA was not actually measuring emissions.
Re: (Score:3)
They were doing a standard test that should have been accurate except that VW intentionally cheated. Measuring actual emissions when driving is not reproducible and would not be a fair test, if everyone was being honest.
Re:seems excessive (Score:4, Interesting)
On a side note, the Engineers, if they were good, must have been demoralized. I would like to hear stories from them, what kind of pressure they were under by Management, and how they switched from creating something great, into just cheating. It is probably in the trial transcripts somewhere(?).
Germany doesn't mess around (Score:2)
I'm gonna have to defer to a line from Harry Potter that sums up my feelings on this quite accurately:
"You're a little scary sometimes...brilliant, but scary."
Now do Boeing (Score:2)
[1]https://behindtheblack.com/beh... [behindtheblack.com]
Hopefully they don't avoid another trial.
[1] https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/boeing-and-justice-department-reach-new-deal-on-criminal-prosecution-for-737-max-crashes/
Concentration Camp (Score:1)
I guess prison is SORT OF like a concentration camp, just not as severe.
But Germany has dispossessed and sent people to concentration camps for activity far more benign than what these guys did.
If Germany isn't going to send them to a concentration camp, they should at least be dispossessed.
Re: (Score:2)
A country is a piece of land. Germany did not do send people to concentration camps - the people running it did.
Re: (Score:1)
The people sent to the camps probably don't care much for semantics.
They deserve life in prison (Score:1)
They took more years off people's lives than any number of mass shooters. These guys deserve a death sentence, every one of them.
Re: (Score:2)
You're confusing justice and revenge. It's not about what you think they deserve, it's about how to protect society. Sending this kind of people to jail 4.5 years has high likeliness of preventing repetition of their crime. By contrary, violent criminals are more likely to repeat murder if they exit, which is why we hold them in jail until they're old enough to not be a danger. Death penalty is nearly ever necessary to protect society.
Re: (Score:2)
A few fall guys.
They took years off people's lives. People died early. People will die early. All thanks to inhaling toxins that were illegally released. All for profit. All widespread. Worse than a bank robbery that gets people killed.
Re: (Score:2)
It's worse than that, EU regulators were well aware that this was happening long before the shit hit the fan.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/en... [theguardian.com]
Basically, the action on the part of the US EPA forced the hand of the EU commission as they could no longer simply look the other way as they knowingly had been doing. You'll never see them hold themselves accountable. It's as you said: Just a few fall guys.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/20/european-commission-warned-car-maker-suspected-cheating-five-years-vw-scandal
So we've got pretty solid evidence (Score:2)
That the threat of long jail sentences does not deter a crime. You've got Google so I'm not going to do the googling for you but you can easily find the studies and they are quite accurate and quite repeatable in all countries they have been done.
On the other hand it would be child's Play to simply seize all of their money and property and then bar them from ever being in a position of leadership again as a condition of parole. That would prevent these men from reoffending.
Now when it comes to viole
Re: (Score:2)
> That the threat of long jail sentences does not deter a crime. You've got Google so I'm not going to do the googling for you but you can easily find the studies and they are quite accurate and quite repeatable in all countries they have been
> done.
It's not the length of the sentence: it's the certainty of being punished that motivates people.
Re: (Score:1)
I appreciate your well-reasoned, thoughtful commentary.
But I don't think things need to be that complicated. We have almost 7 billion people on the planet. We don't need dirtbags living amongst us, depriving others of resources. I think it is as simple as this: get caught engaging in illegal dirtbag activity of serious magnitude and your life is forfeit. Period.
It's not about revenge, or punishment, or rehabilitation, or even deterrence. It's simply a matter of society not needing to waste resources on th
Re: (Score:2)
If you've seen someone dying of lung cancer, you might reconsider what you call "violence".
Re: (Score:2)
Considering the health risks of diesel emissions, one could probably argue there isn't a murderer on death row that has caused as many deaths as these people. It was willfull, malicious and with intent. Just because they were suits and work in a glass tower doesn't magically make them something other than what they really are: murderers.
Re: (Score:2)
> You're confusing justice and revenge. It's not about what you think they deserve, it's about how to protect society.
I don't think either of those are what's happening here.
What of the European regulators, who looked the other way when they realized what was going on? While Internet Europeans (including here on slashdot) were going on about how much more enlightened Europe was than America because the former used diesel, which they claimed to be better on the environment, many within the EU member states knew full well otherwise, which wasn't revealed until the US EPA did routine compliance testing and ended up forcing VW
Re: (Score:3)
eh, no.
I'm all for prison sentences for CEO/Board/Management who "knew about it and did nothing", there are in fact many American companies that should have their board members and management thrown in jail for lesser crimes. For example Ebay and Amazon execs for knowingly allowing low quality junk, eg dropship/temu/wish.com/shein garbage to even be on their sites. They know this stuff is dangerous, toxic or harmful, and do nothing.
But there is a line to be drawn between "crimes done to make money, should b