VW executives subject to criminal investigations

VW management board under scrutiny…

The latest twist in the VW car emissions scandal surrounds further criminal investigations made against management at the German auto makers at the centre of the “dieselgate” emissions scandal.

Many VW officials on the management board are now subject to criminal investigations in the U.S. as the world holds its breath to find out just who knew what, and how much was known…

Can the management board be trusted?

There are questions as to whether the management board be trusted.

VW’s CEO Matthias Muller has declared that a criminal investigation has been underway since the beginning of the year, but people were assured that there wasn’t anything to worry about as the management weren’t conscious of any guilt.

If there is any guilt on the part of VW’s top executives, we don’t think they will be able to hide it for long, as more and more evidence is piling up against them. A former VW engineer pleaded guilty for his contribution in manipulating the emissions software, and according to a German broadcast radio, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the software engineer admitted that he was involved in the emissions cheating for ten years. He went on to say that the alleged cheating software began in 2006 and he’s “one of many at VW” who was involved in the emissions scandal.

Criminal defence lawyers hired

Many VW executives have hired U.S. criminal defence lawyers as the Justice Department are in the process of gathering evidence in a bid to charge the executives of alleged involvement in the scandal. Bloomberg reports that many of the executives will be subject to interviews by U.S. authorities to find out whether or not they were involved in the scandal.

U.S. authorities investigation

The U.S. Justice Department has categorised the scandal as a ’10-year conspiracy’ to deceive environmental officials such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

This puts the limelight on prosecutors to focus their energy on prosecuting the individuals responsible for the wrongdoing after the U.S. had entered into a £11.2 billion settlement, but failed to hold the individuals accountable for the emissions cheating.

It’s not clear who will face charges, but the U.S. authorities are doing everything they can to secure a prosecution for the clear violations of environmental regulations and the fraudulent and deceitful behaviour.

Thus far, management members remain adamant that they had no knowledge:

“…the then and current board of management of VW had, at any rate, no knowledge of the use of unlawful engine-management software at the time.”

Even if there’s no evidence that VW’s top management approved of the cheating software, the authorities can investigate whether they were slow to inform their customers and regulating authorities of the alleged “defeat device”.

If U.S. authorities choose to press charges against VW executives in Germany, they may find it difficult as the German constitution prohibits citizens to be extradited outside of the EU. However, the case should be taken one step at a time as the U.S. authorities have yet to find individual wrongdoing among the VW executive board.