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posted by martyb on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the so-it-was-not-a-rogue-engineer dept.

"A Volkswagen compliance executive who pleaded guilty in the US for his role in the company's $US30 billion ($40 billion) emissions cheating scandal has been sentenced to seven years in prison."

http://www.theage.com.au/business/vw-executive-sentenced-to-7-years-in-prison-for-diesel-role-20171206-p4yxh0.html

Ars Technica reports:

On Wednesday, a US District judge in Detroit sentenced Oliver Schmidt, a former Volkswagen executive, to seven years in prison for his role in the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal of 2015. Schmidt was also ordered to pay a criminal penalty of $400,000, according to a US Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. The prison term and the fine together represent the maximum sentence that Schmidt could have received under the plea deal he signed in August.

Schmidt, a German citizen who lived in Detroit as an emissions compliance executive for VW, was arrested in Miami on vacation last January. In August, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to making a false statement under the Clean Air Act. Schmidt’s plea deal stated that the former executive could face up to seven years in prison and between $40,000 and $400,000 in fines.

Last week, Schmidt’s attorneys made a last-minute bid requesting a lighter sentence for Schmidt: 40 months of supervised release and a $100,000 fine. Schmidt also wrote a letter to the judge, which surfaced over the weekend, in which the executive said he felt “misused” by his own company and claimed that higher-ranked VW executives coached him on a script to help him lie to a California Air Resources Board (CARB) official.

Also at NYT.


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 08 2017, @08:12PM (1 child)

    by edIII (791) on Friday December 08 2017, @08:12PM (#607381)

    Uh huh. What they forget is that somebody is still taking out the trash, mopping the floors, cooking their food, etc. Have you seen Fight Club? There is a wonderful scene where Brad Pitt is explaining to the police chief or governor (can't recall) pretty much the same concept.

    “Remember this. The people you're trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you're asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life.

    We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact. So don't fuck with us.”
    -- Tyler Durden

    *They can't hide their movements*

    Why? They're weak men that couldn't survive 24 hours in the wilderness. Constantly surrounded by others to do all their work for them, including taking care of themselves and their property. You put enough people's faces into the dirt under your boot heel, they will rise up.

    *I* can hide my movements.

    Why? I'm small. I take care of myself. No other man or woman is required for 98% of what I do. I have almost nothing left (by intent), and can pick up and move instantly. No bank accounts, or 401ks, no Facebook feeds, no social media. No cooks, janitors, cleaners, etc. In short, I don't have an entourage around me of exploited wage slaves.

    THAT is the real lesson. If all you did was surround yourself in wage slaves, you are NOT safe from them. We are all wage slaves now, waking up to the fact that hard work never meant shit, that education never meant shit, the whole game was rigged, and 90% of your production was stolen upwards.

    LOL. They better hope you are right and the hoi polloi are inept, apathetic, and unable to deal with them. Instant that changes, their lives are going to be very similar to somebody trying to escape a volcano.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday December 08 2017, @08:40PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday December 08 2017, @08:40PM (#607400)

    It's clearly working for Der Orangen Furher... and the big ones like Charlie Koch, and even non-assholes like Sergey Brin, have dedicated security staff who do nothing but analyze and optimize their employer's security profile - vetting people who have access to their food, and even sweeping their routes to check for risk tells. Sergey makes his security chief nuts by rollerskating to work, but that's the balance - live life and expose yourself a bit, or crawl deep in a hole. I think the Koch brothers probably have a private subway system... not saying you couldn't put a bullet in the Gipper if you really tried, but it's getting much harder lately.

    --
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