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posted by janrinok on Sunday September 11 2016, @09:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the little-fish-first dept.

The Detroit News reports

Federal documents unsealed Friday detail how VW engineers from the very beginning of the automaker's so-called "clean diesel" program intentionally developed and installed a "defeat device" on roughly 500,000 cars from 2009 through 2015 in the United States so that they could appear to pass U.S. emissions tests.

The details were made public as James Robert Liang, leader of diesel competence for VW from 2008 through June, appeared in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He entered a guilty plea to a grand jury indictment of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, to commit wire fraud and to violate the Clean Air Act. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

It marks the first criminal charge in the year-long scandal at the German automaker and could indicate more charges against VW officials are coming in the Department of Justice investigation into the company.

[...] Liang was also indicted for violating the Clean Air Act, which includes a two-year prison term and $250,000 fine. But under a plea agreement with the Justice Department, he did not enter a plea to that charge.

[...] Liang is not a U.S. citizen, and his conviction on the charges could affect his eligibility to remain in the United States, U.S. District Judge Sean Cox said. Liang is scheduled to be sentenced at 2 p.m. Jan. 11 before Cox.

Previous: Activist-Comedian Interrupts VW Exec's Geneva Presentation to Install "Cheat Box"


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday September 11 2016, @09:45AM

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Sunday September 11 2016, @09:45AM (#400246)

    I hope he gets a hefty bonus for taking a prison sentence for his employer. Because you know what? I don't believe for one second that the engineers working under him didn't know anything about the cheating scheme, and I have a hard time believing his own management didn't either.

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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 11 2016, @11:37AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 11 2016, @11:37AM (#400254)

    Yep, the Nazis sold a chink down the river, and we are supposed to buy that? Fuck that. We need a least a Nazi overlord or two.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 11 2016, @11:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 11 2016, @11:48AM (#400255)

    He's a Fuse:
    So his function is to break the connection between the management above and the workers below.
    But sometimes a fuse under stress can arc over.
    Hopefully his golden parachute is not sufficient to quench the arc and we'll be able to get some more interesting bad guys.

    Alternate explanation:
    It is management's job to know what is going on, but..
    Perhaps he was just a REALLY talented guy to manage to ship so many cars without management knowing.
    If so, he should run for President. We could use such a talented candidate.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Non Sequor on Sunday September 11 2016, @10:20PM

    by Non Sequor (1005) on Sunday September 11 2016, @10:20PM (#400401) Journal

    Management doesn't necessarily have to directly micromanage this sort of thing. Where I work, it's made clear that if the company gets sued related to something you've done, you get defended and indemnified by the company and its insurer if you're named as a party in the suit, so long as you're complying with company policy which includes mistake reporting.

    What ends up happening in this kind of framework, is that you have to air anything controversial, or else your ass is on the line for it.

    --
    Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday September 13 2016, @06:31PM

      by frojack (1554) on Tuesday September 13 2016, @06:31PM (#401431) Journal

      This!

      The corporate pressure to do the engineering work well and cost effectively does not usually lead to CFOs or CTOs micromanaging the software level changes. They wouldn't know how to read that code if their life depended on it.

      The engineer designing the exhaust manifolds and the engine structural components is totally oblivious to the software changes on the Engine Management Computer. The number of people who might know this is rather small in any car company. EMC software is outsourced, (to Bosch in this case) and individual car companies usually are just making parameter changes in a table - like you messing with your sysvinit scripts.

      Its easy to believe this could have happened without upper management knowing a thing, or the guys down the hall knowing anything.
      And anybody who doesn't believe this has CLEARLY never worked in a large company or done anything but menial day-labor.

      Is management responsible? Yes, by definition, and also for failing to install a code of ethics.

      But did they know from the beginning? Not likely. It was likely only this small group dealing with Bosch that knew in the beginning.

      Did they find out somewhere along the way? Probably. Because Bosch spilled the beans to the board [autonews.com] back in 2007.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.