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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.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by bradley13 on Sunday September 11 2016, @12:37PM
You find someone of middling importance, who is at least a little bit guilty. You make a huge list of all the charges you could throw at them, knowing full well that - even if they are innocent of most of the charges - they do not have the resources to defend themselves. Then you hold out a carrot: "we won't ruin your life, at least not totally, if only you rat out as many other people as you can".
Rinse and repeat, until you have a whole barrel full of people to prosecute. Hopefully, you can also work your way up the chain of management. If your dragnet caught a few innocents, well, it's a small price to pay, right?
This is a good technique for nailing the top-level managers, because insiders know where to look for the interesting documents. That's why they do it. On the other hand, you do wind up destroying a lot of lives. Piling on charges and offering plea bargains - this is abusive as hell. Even a completely innocent person will at best be bankrupted by defending themselves; at worst, they wind up in jail anyway.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NCommander on Sunday September 11 2016, @05:24PM
Here's the problem. You always have the option to walk away when someone asks you to do something unethical.
Even if the engineer had a wife and family, you can find another job, or at the very least, blow the whistle to the authorities. Most people won't unfortunately, The Milgram experiment showed that most people when ordered will just do what they're told to do. [wikipedia.org] I've left positions due to being unwilling to follow (in my opinion) instructions that went against my moral code of fair play and honor. This goes a step farther since the engineer should have been very much aware of both the unethnicity of it, as well as the illegalness.
That being said, by simply only going after the engineer, and not those further up the chain, he's a scapegoat at best ...
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Sunday September 11 2016, @06:13PM
I absolutely agree with you. But it's damned hard to do, and often these things creep up, one little step at a time.
In this specific case, this is the software that lets you control how the engine is operating. Finding settings that would reduce emissions is, of course, a good thing. Finding settings that optimize power is also a good thing. All very necessary. Even being able to detect when your car is on a test stand has legitimate uses, like turning on additional telemetry. So you've put all that work in, and it's all fine. Until the day that someone, somewhere, wants to add one little line of code: "if not test-stand then optimize power". Do you throw your career and your family under the bus? That's a hard, hard decision.
Anyway, as I said, I don't think they're just going after this guy. I think they're going to try to use him as a stepping stone to catch a whole boatload of other people. If I believed they would actually get only the guilty, I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, this is a case that makes careers, and those careers are going to be more important than being careful not to squash a lot of innocents along the way.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday September 11 2016, @11:28PM
Is that a slope you really want to slip down?
Sure, you ALWAYS have the option to walk away. Even when it'll cost you your job. Even when it'll cost your family a regular income. Even when your child depends on your employer's health care plan for life-saving treatment. Even when someone has a gun to your head. Even when someone is taking your family hostage. You ALWAYS have the option, right?
Dammit, if you're not willing to sacrifice everything that you value for the sake of the platonic morality, you deserve everything misfortune that may befall you, and good riddance.
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