Page 1 of VW Exec jailed for 7 years

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VW Exec jailed for 7 years

RJS (undefined) posted this on Friday, 8th December 2017, 17:39

https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/07/volkswagen-exec-prison-sentence-emissions-scandal/

Quote:
Volkswagen official Oliver Schmidt has been sentenced to seven years in prison and handed down a $400,000 fine. In August, the former Volkswagen manager in Michigan pleaded guilty for his role in the automaker's emission-cheating scheme.

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Quote:
As the general manager of Volkswagen's engineering and environmental office in Michigan, Schmidt was responsible for the company's relationship with California's regulatory agency and reportedly fed federal regulators false information. Schmidt tried to downplay his involvement, but admitted that he concealed the existence of the software in at least one meeting with a California Air Resources Board senior official back in 2015.

"A script, or talking points, I was directed to follow for that meeting was approved by management level supervisors at VW, including a high-ranking in-house lawyer," he wrote in a letter addressed to Judge Sean F. Cox from the Federal District Court of Detroit. "Regrettably, I agreed to follow it." Judge Cox told Schmidt during the sentencing hearing that he "viewed the cover-up as an opportunity to shine and climb up the corporate ladder."

So possibly not the last exec to get jailed.


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RE: VW Exec jailed for 7 years

Si Wooldridge (Reviewer) posted this on Friday, 8th December 2017, 19:14

Good, we should do this more to encourage responsible capitalism...

...it's little wonder people think it's broken when people think they can get away with stuff like this.

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RE: VW Exec jailed for 7 years

Mikeonfreeserve (Elite) posted this on Friday, 8th December 2017, 22:59

When are we going to start jailing more bankers? What happened to the pigs who were stripping small businesses and living the high life on the proceeds?

RE: VW Exec jailed for 7 years

Si Wooldridge (Reviewer) posted this on Saturday, 9th December 2017, 14:11

Quote:
Mikeonfreeserve says...
"When are we going to start jailing more bankers? What happened to the pigs who were stripping small businesses and living the high life on the proceeds?"

I think we should and thought so at the time...

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RE: VW Exec jailed for 7 years

bandicoot (Elite) posted this on Saturday, 9th December 2017, 14:53

One of the biggest problems is finding the real culprits, and it is usually at the boardroom of a company, mainly to do with cost saving.

if you look at the above case with VW, someone(s) at the top agreed this method of cheating and it was instigated and kept a secret, and you find that happens with a lot of companies rhat use unofficial rules, backed up with sacking if you speak out.

Unfortunately, industry is full of these unofficial rules, and makes life very difficult on many an individuals conscience, especially where safety issues can be affected, and could even lead to deaths.

I myself have had to cover my back with a letter (signed by accountants who wanted to take lights out of one of my jobs), when aircraft warning lights on a new 40M boilerhouse exhaust stack were taken out the bills of quantities, by accountants to save on money. yet unofficially military low flying jets frequented the area.

If a plane had hit that stack it would have been me as the lead design engineer that would have been blamed, so with that letter, i  pursued with the powers that be, on my own time at meetings, that the aircraft warning lights should be put back in for safety, and a year later they were put on the stack, at more cost, as scaffolding had to be put back up to install, wiring,  brackets and lights. My conscience was then clear, i had done my job.

So in this world, usually the minions get the blame, and those at the top get away with it.

PS...It will be interesting next year, to see who gets the blame, if any, for the many deaths caused by the fast moving fires on the external cladding on the Greenfell towers blaze.

This item was edited on Saturday, 9th December 2017, 21:57

RE: VW Exec jailed for 7 years

Si Wooldridge (Reviewer) posted this on Saturday, 9th December 2017, 18:44

Quote:
bandicoot says...
"PS...It will be interesting next year, to see who gets the blame, if any, for the many deaths caused by the fast moving fires on the external cladding on the Greenfell towers blaze."

Yes it will, and whilst I am happy for the blame to fall wherever and on whomever was at fault, I have a feeling we might be surprised at just who is enveloped in this eventually...

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