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: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday November 27 2017, @04:04PM (1 child)
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
Maybe that's true where you are, e.g. Nazi Germany. Just following orders and all that.