Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

VW Engineer Sentenced to 40-month Prison Term in Diesel Case

posted by janrinok on Sunday November 26 2017, @08:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-the-bosses? dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-sentencing/vw-engineer-sentenced-to-40-month-prison-term-in-diesel-case-idUSKCN1B51YP

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - 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.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
VW Engineer Sentenced to 40-month Prison Term in Diesel Case | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 30 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 26 2017, @02:14PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 26 2017, @02:14PM (#601723)

    Isn't this old news and a dupe? https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/08/27/1239207 [soylentnews.org]

    Anyway he's not a mere junior engineer or newbie. He's a senior level engineer.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/business/volkswagen-engineer-prison-diesel-cheating.html [nytimes.com]

    But the judge said Mr. Liang was “too loyal” to the German automaker he had worked for since the 1980s, and unwilling to expose its deceptive practices or walk away from his $350,000-a-year job.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-25/vw-engineer-sentenced-to-40-months-for-emissions-cheating-role [bloomberg.com]

    “Liang was not the mastermind behind this astonishing fraud,’’ but “took part in many of the pivotal events,’’ the U.S. said in court papers Aug. 18. That included developing the deficient engine and defeat device in 2006 and participating in meetings with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board in 2007 to get approvals to bring the vehicles into the country.

    He's at the level where he's supposed to be experienced enough to know to push back if the bosses asked him to do something illegal. And where he'd have everything in writing if they insisted.

    It's the job of CxOs/bosses to ask the engineers to do stuff to benefit the company (or the CxOs/bosses) that may or may not be possible. It's the job of the engineers to provide "guidance" or "pushback" if it involves breaking any laws legal or physical...

    I'd be more unhappy if they had thrown the junior engineers under Liang into jail. As it is if Liang doesn't have a stash of stuff to shift some jailtime to the "real mastermind", his bosses and CxOs; or get some huge payoff from VW then he really screwed up. All senior staff around the world should learn to not do what Liang did or at least get a huge pile of "insurance"...

    Happens too when building stuff - Boss says "make it cheaper, use less/cheaper concrete/steel". Engineer - "that's as cheap as we can go". Sometimes there may actually be creative and clever ways of getting it done cheaper and still be safe and the Engineer might eventually figure that out. Or it might really be impossible with current technology. The Boss normally won't know such stuff, and it's not his job to know.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Informative=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday November 27 2017, @04:04PM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday November 27 2017, @04:04PM (#602085)

    This is too idealistic. In reality, if the engineer doesn't do what the boss wants (regardless of legality, ethics, etc.), then the engineer gets fired, misses out on promotions, etc.

    So the engineer gets all the risk, while the executives get golden parachutes and multi-million dollar compensation packages.

    The moral of the story: don't go into engineering. It doesn't pay that well, it requires too much work/long hours, you don't get to work with any women, the job security is poor, and worst of all you'll probably have to use Windows.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @02:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @02:59PM (#602515)

      This is too idealistic. In reality, if the engineer doesn't do what the boss wants (regardless of legality, ethics, etc.), then the engineer gets fired, misses out on promotions, etc.

      Maybe that's true where you are, e.g. Nazi Germany. Just following orders and all that.