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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
A federal judge in Detroit sentenced former engineer James Liang to 40 months in prison on Friday for his role in Volkswagen AG's (VOWG_p.DE) multiyear scheme to sell diesel cars that generated more pollution than U.S. clean air rules allowed.
U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox also ordered Liang to pay a $200,000 fine, 10 times the amount sought by federal prosecutors. Cox said he hoped the prison sentence and fine would deter other auto industry engineers and executives from similar schemes to deceive regulators and consumers.
Liang was part of a long-term conspiracy that perpetrated a "stunning fraud on the American consumer," Cox said, as the defendant's family looked on in the courtroom. "This is a very serious and troubling crime against our economic system."
Liang pleaded guilty earlier this year to misleading regulators, and had cooperated with U.S. law enforcement officials investigating Volkswagen.
Prosecutors last week recommended that Liang, 63, receive a three-year prison sentence, reflecting credit for his months of cooperation with the U.S. investigation of Volkswagen's diesel emissions fraud. Liang could have received a five-year prison term under federal sentencing guidelines. Liang's lawyers had asked for a sentence of home detention and community service.
Liang can appeal the sentence, Cox said.
Volkswagen pleaded guilty in March to three felony charges under an agreement with prosecutors to resolve the U.S. criminal probe of the company itself. It agreed to spend as much as $25 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners and regulators and offered to buy back about 500,000 vehicles.
Volkswagen has admitted that it used software to deceive regulators in the United States and Europe from 2006 to 2015.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:28PM (6 children)
Boss: Do this
Worker Bee: Isn't that illegal?
Boss: don't worry about it, let legal handle it
Worker Bee: I dunno man, sounds sketchy to me
Boss: Wanna get laid off next week?
Worker Bee: Yessir, it will be done by friday.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday August 28 2017, @12:24AM (2 children)
Among the crimes I have seen in the electronics industry over the years:
- Selling the customer used parts as new, or selling the customer a "new" assembly with used parts in it.
- Environmental crimes, dumping noxious shit down gutters, etc.
- Employees being forced to use nasty solvents like MEK and Bio-solv in enclosed areas without fume hoods or breathing apparatus
- Shitty or bogus timekeeping on government contracts
- Bullshitting tech data on the fly even though there were no procedures for the item
- An assembly shipped full of loose screws (also on a government contract)
- Assemblies wired backwards, then re-wired double-backwards in the field to compensate (imagine my surprise when i opened the system up only to see a handwritten note wrapped in an ESD back explaining the situation).
- I was not present for this one, but sunflower seed shells found in a system
- Ridiculously dangerous large industrial machinery which frequently dropped 400-pound chunks of metal into the wash tanks from 6-ft height (and also the only job I ever literally just walked out of after getting sick of that shit).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:39PM (1 child)
And how many of those did you document and report?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday September 02 2017, @10:57PM
Ha, ha.
You're funny, kid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @04:09AM
Much better than the usual "Volkswagen/HSBC/etc gives the government its cut of the loot".
Once it starts common for lower ranks to start going to jail they'd be less likely to do such stuff or they'll start collecting evidence in such scenarios (send that to me in writing) so that others will go down too. All of which discourages those at the top.
For what it's worth it doesn't seem he was that low in the ranks or that innocent: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-25/vw-engineer-sentenced-to-40-months-for-emissions-cheating-role [bloomberg.com]
He's certainly no fresh junior engineer being scapegoated. He's 63 years old, he should have known it was illegal. Gather the evidence, get sacked "for not cooperating", then sue for unfair dismissal etc.
I know some are playing up the "he's was never in management" bits but it's often the bosses job to try to push/stretch the limits, it's the supposed experts job to push back when it's too dangerous, illegal, or impossible.
A boss may say how about we use less concrete or not wait so long (for the concrete to set or be tested). The lead engineers involved are not supposed to go along with it if it's unsafe or illegal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @06:37AM (1 child)
I've been blatantly told to lie by my boss. Fortunately it wasn't critical. Fucking company later folded.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @09:08AM
You're not the only one who did it.
And I've suffered the wrath of the boss after telling the truth to clients in cases I wasn't explicitly told to lie. The boss was kind of Jewish in nature.