In the midst of the many legal battles and billions of dollars in settlements and fines being paid out so far in the U.S., Volkswagen Executives are facing criminal charges for their alleged roles in the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal too.
It has been reported that six top executives have been accused of a decade-long conspiracy to create the software for their vehicles to cheat official testing. U.S. federal authorities have issued indictments for the executives to be extradited to the U.S. for Trial.
Alongside these revelations, the Volkswagen group have reportedly pleaded guilty to not only cheating emissions testing, but also of destroying evidence in a bid to cover up their actions. U.S. federal courts will not take their fraudulent behaviour and attempts to cover it up lightly. The destroying of evidence reportedly involved some 40 employees, all of whom will likely be investigated in the criminal probe.
Reports also say that Volkswagen admitted that they used false statements to move the cars, and when authorities became suspicious of them, Volkswagen purposefully got in the way to hinder any investigations from revealing their cheating.
The U.S. has initiated extradition of the accused six top German executives, but may find German authorities unwilling to hand them over as their National laws generally only extradites within the European Union. Criminal charges are not limited to these six executives, and it’s expected that many more will face criminal investigations for their part in the scandal.
Engineers pleading guilty
Recently, VW engineer James Liang pleaded guilty to conspiring and having a key role in the emissions cheating activities. He is reportedly working with federal investigators to uncover exactly who was involved in the entire scandal, and the nature of their roles. This criminal probe in the U.S. is also not likely to be the only one. We can expect Germany, as well as other affected European countries, to bring in their own criminal proceedings; although the U.K. has so far been unforgivably unhelpful.
Deep regrets
CEO Matthias Mueller has said in a statement on behalf of Volkswagen that the company “deeply regrets the behaviour that gave rise to the diesel crisis”. With their continued refusal to pay compensation to millions across the world, it feels more like the only thing Volkswagen regrets is the fact that they got caught…
Serious accusations
Volkswagen is accused of extremely serious fraudulent behaviour, such as:
- Conspiring to cheat the system for an entire decade;
- Tens of employees destroying evidence;
- Obstructing investigations;
- Lying in statements.
This reported dishonest behaviour by Volkswagen is not something one can just apologise for, and say they made a mistake. It may take time, but Volkswagen should be held fully accountable for their actions that have affected not only millions of innocent consumers, but the entire world in the environmental and health aspects.
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