Uncertainty of VW’s criminal investigation in light of Trump’s presidency

The hope of the “dieselgate” criminal settlement being decided before the end of Barack Obama’s administration is possibly wishful thinking.

Instead, the fate of the VW management board may well be left in the hands of Donald Trump’s administration, which is an unknown territory.

Uncertainty…

German newspaper BILD reported that VW will have to fear the worse, as insinuated by their headline “VW now in the Trump Trap”.

In the U.S. Department of Justice report, it detailed that the criminal charges against the German manufacturer won’t be coming to a close before the end of Obama’s presidency. The report also suggested a horror scenario; that Trump, his team, and future Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, won’t be any closer to making a settlement deal.

On top, this could in fact broaden the criminal investigations…

The VW Group fears that they’ll be exposed to the “capriciousness of an unpredictable government”, and their fears could be well-founded, as his future administration is already proving to be quite unpredictable, with some of his proposals including to ‘undo’ the progress that Obama has made in regards to climate change.

The start of the criminal probe

The criminal probe started in September this year when a former VW engineer, James Robert Liang, pleaded guilty to colluding to defraud regulators and vehicle owners. From then on, the Department of Justice seems to have built a broader criminal case to include VW’s top management board.

Mr Liang’s deceit reportedly accelerated the development of the so-called “defeat device”. He also reportedly covered up the emissions testing as well as lying to regulators when there were discrepancies in the emissions results.

Discussions and cooperation

Federal prosecutors and VW lawyers have had several preliminary discussions in an attempt to reach a settlement before the end of the year. However, it doesn’t seem possible. The German manufacturer is expected to face a large fine if the £11.6 billion civil settlement is anything to go by.

To speed things up, U.S. investigators have reached out to VW employees to come to the U.S. so they can get further information in light of the scandal. Even if U.S. regulators were to charge individuals from VW’s executive board, they will probably not face extradition as the German constitution usually prohibits extradition outside of the EU.

Tough on white-collar crime

The criminal investigation comes at a time where the government are trying to clamp down on white-collar crimes and holding individuals accountable for their actions. Prosecuting Mr Liang for his reported deceitful actions has arguably got the ball rolling for making higher executives accountable too. Unless Trump’s office diverts away from this priority, I’m sure that we won’t see the last of these criminal prosecutions…

It remains to be seen as to whether any of VW’s top management board will be prosecuted for cheating in the emissions scandal, which affected around 11 million vehicles worldwide.

The Department of Justice report mentioned that the German manufacturer may receive credit for its cooperation. It doesn’t mention what kind of credit, but it could involve reducing a financial penalty.

Pressure has been continually mounting against the German manufacturer to reach a quick settlement; however, this may be of little use when Trump is in power. Trump’s administration may actually lengthen the investigation and an end won’t be in sight.

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