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submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 137 points 5 days ago

I long for the day that ANYTHING close to this happens in the USA

I guess you've good news, then.

Across the Atlantic, two former VW engineers — Oliver Schmidt and James Robert Liang — are already serving prison sentences in the U.S. Schmidt, who once led VW’s environmental office in the U.S., was sentenced to seven years after initially denying guilt but later reaching a plea deal. Liang received 40 months after cooperating with prosecutors.

[-] [email protected] 96 points 5 days ago

To salvage the argument, it's quite possible this would have been different if they were from GM rather than VW.

[-] [email protected] 38 points 5 days ago

It most likely would‘ve. Just look how quickly US courts started to turn Monsanto into shreds the very second Bayer bought it. They‘re after that so called stupid German money. Wouldn‘t work if it was American money.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

I am surprised VW clowns got the prison tbh but i am sure there is a reason why it actually happened here.

System fucked up lol

[-] [email protected] -4 points 5 days ago

I dunno, VW is about as American as GM.

[-] [email protected] 54 points 5 days ago

two former VW engineers

Yeah, unless they are Chief Engineers, these two are just people who got caught in the churn.

Wake me up when the President of US Operations gets sentenced to prison. Hell, I'll even be okay with club Fed.

[-] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago

They are like the one guy who went to jail for the 08 financial crisis

[-] [email protected] 22 points 5 days ago

two former VW engineers

Not CEOs

[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Neither were the people in Germany.

The court sent the former head of diesel engine development behind bars for four years and six months, and the former head of powertrain electronics to two years and seven months. Two others — Volkswagen’s former development director and a former department head — received suspended sentences, according to Der Spiegel and Deutsche Welle reports from the Braunschweig courtroom.

The (now ex-) CEO of VW, Winterkorn, is a fugitive from justice in US -- the reason he isn't in prison in the US is because he's hiding in Germany, and Germany doesn't extradite its nationals. IIRC from memory back during the incident, he's facing a total of over two hundred years in potential sentence from the charges, though some of that would probably run in parallel, were he convicted, and I assume that in practice, there'd be some sort of plea deal.

EDIT: Maybe it was over one hundred, not two hundred. I distinctly remember trying to figure out whether the sentences could run in parallel when reading an article about it at the time. In practice, he'd probably plea bargain it down, but there also is no parole for federal sentences in the US, so he wouldn't be getting out early, either.

EDIT2: Also, because he's a fugitive and it's a federal crime:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3290

18 U.S. Code § 3290 - Fugitives from justice

No statute of limitations shall extend to any person fleeing from justice.

So I expect that he's probably going to stay in Germany for the rest of his life, unless he can find some other location that wouldn't extradite him (Russia?)

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

According to Wikipedia, he should have a criminal trial in Germany starting this year, so it's possible he will still get sentenced there as well.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Russia?

Saudi Arabia might take him. Hell, they put up Idi Amin for the remainder of his syphilis-scarred life.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

This is the most unbelievable part: a us court held management responsible for criminal behavior? Did that not pay their fines? Did no one have a spare jet to offer?

this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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