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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 26 2017, @08:24PM
So much fraud, deep crises that makes hardworking people lose their homes, families and lives and not a single executive or even engineer went to prison for the American-engineered great depression. They called the securities they were selling "shit" and were quite happy selling that "shit" to investors. The world paid for their sins and no one went to prison. That is something to think about.
The diesel emissions 'scandal' (bullshit) is a non-issue. No one died or lost their family or home or job because there were a little more fumes than there usually are. And forests clear that stuff up pretty good. Financial crises on the other hand...
Those calling for prison sentences of executives need to be slapped in the face and shown the facts. Every manufacturer was cheating on emissions rules. There were no American manufacturers affected by the regulations, so there you have it.