“How VW Paid $25 Billion for ‘Dieselgate’ — and Got Off Easy” (Fortune) http://fortune.com/2018/02/06/volkswagen-vw-emissions-scandal-penalties/
“U.S. authorities have extracted $25 billion in fines, penalties and restitution from VW for the 580,000 tainted diesels it sold in the U.S. In Europe, where the company sold 8 million tainted diesels, VW has not paid a single Euro in government penalties.”
…how much energy and resources were squandered manufacturing and selling all these vehicles – and what happens to them next?
On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan, indicted four Audi executives for playing a role in the diesel cheating scandals that rocked parent company Volkswagen Group in 2015 and 2016. The four executives—Richard Bauder, Axel Eiser, Stefan Knirsch, and Carsten Nagel—all worked for Audi in Germany, and they have not been arrested. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/need-for-a-large-trunk-and-a-high-end-sound-system-pushed-audi-to-cheat/ The four men have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act. The indictment provides some new details on how emissions cheating unfolded at Audi and VW Group, especially with respect to emissions control system cheats on Audi’s 3.0L diesel vehicles. See https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/show_temp.pl-16.pdf
“Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and the company’s chairman, Hans Dieter Pötsch, were charged by German prosecutors on Tuesday with market manipulation tied to the carmaker’s diesel emissions scandal.
The two executives are accused of failing to disclose the huge financial risks of the diesel scandal to shareholders in a timely fashion.
New charges against Martin Winterkorn, the former CEO of Volkswagen (VLKAF), were also revealed in an indictment running to nearly 640 pages.
Under German law, top executives must inform shareholders of information that can affect stock prices — such as considerable financial risks — as soon as they become aware of them.
In a statement, prosecutors accused all three men of failing to carry out their duty to investors.
The indictments are the latest fallout from Volkswagen’s bombshell admission in 2015 that it had rigged millions of diesel cars worldwide to cheat on emissions tests, a scandal that has cost the company over $30 billion.
Shareholders were also hit hard: The company’s stock price plummeted by nearly 40% after allegations of cheating were finally made public in September 2015.” https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/business/volkswagen-ceo-herbert-diess-indicted/index.html
Volkswagen: Germany’s first mass lawsuit begins (BBC) https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49878247 Germany’s first mass lawsuit begins as 450,000 owners of diesel Volkswagen cars take on the company.
They argue they are owed compensation for being sold cars based on misleading emissions data.
The scandal has already cost VW €30bn (£26.6bn).
It has faced class action claims in the US and Australia, but this is the first time Germans could pursue group claims since the law was changed last year.
This trial will settle points of law and the claimants will later be able to file follow-up claims for compensation if they are successful
“How VW Paid $25 Billion for ‘Dieselgate’ — and Got Off Easy” (Fortune) http://fortune.com/2018/02/06/volkswagen-vw-emissions-scandal-penalties/
“U.S. authorities have extracted $25 billion in fines, penalties and restitution from VW for the 580,000 tainted diesels it sold in the U.S. In Europe, where the company sold 8 million tainted diesels, VW has not paid a single Euro in government penalties.”
…how much energy and resources were squandered manufacturing and selling all these vehicles – and what happens to them next?
On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan, indicted four Audi executives for playing a role in the diesel cheating scandals that rocked parent company Volkswagen Group in 2015 and 2016. The four executives—Richard Bauder, Axel Eiser, Stefan Knirsch, and Carsten Nagel—all worked for Audi in Germany, and they have not been arrested. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/need-for-a-large-trunk-and-a-high-end-sound-system-pushed-audi-to-cheat/ The four men have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act. The indictment provides some new details on how emissions cheating unfolded at Audi and VW Group, especially with respect to emissions control system cheats on Audi’s 3.0L diesel vehicles. See https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/show_temp.pl-16.pdf
“Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and the company’s chairman, Hans Dieter Pötsch, were charged by German prosecutors on Tuesday with market manipulation tied to the carmaker’s diesel emissions scandal.
The two executives are accused of failing to disclose the huge financial risks of the diesel scandal to shareholders in a timely fashion.
New charges against Martin Winterkorn, the former CEO of Volkswagen (VLKAF), were also revealed in an indictment running to nearly 640 pages.
Under German law, top executives must inform shareholders of information that can affect stock prices — such as considerable financial risks — as soon as they become aware of them.
In a statement, prosecutors accused all three men of failing to carry out their duty to investors.
The indictments are the latest fallout from Volkswagen’s bombshell admission in 2015 that it had rigged millions of diesel cars worldwide to cheat on emissions tests, a scandal that has cost the company over $30 billion.
Shareholders were also hit hard: The company’s stock price plummeted by nearly 40% after allegations of cheating were finally made public in September 2015.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/business/volkswagen-ceo-herbert-diess-indicted/index.html
Volkswagen: Germany’s first mass lawsuit begins (BBC) https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49878247 Germany’s first mass lawsuit begins as 450,000 owners of diesel Volkswagen cars take on the company.
They argue they are owed compensation for being sold cars based on misleading emissions data.
The scandal has already cost VW €30bn (£26.6bn).
It has faced class action claims in the US and Australia, but this is the first time Germans could pursue group claims since the law was changed last year.
This trial will settle points of law and the claimants will later be able to file follow-up claims for compensation if they are successful
“Volkswagen loses landmark German ‘dieselgate’ case” https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52795376
“Volkswagen must buy back ‘dieselgate’ cars: Germany’s top court : Court ruling sets precedent for hundreds of thousands of car owners affected by VW emissions test cheating in Germany.” https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/volkswagen-buy-dieselgate-cars-germany-top-court-200525061920051.html
“About 15% of U.S. diesel trucks that were originally certified with emissions controls have had those systems tampered with. That’s among the takeaways from a U.S. EPA report released last Friday. It suggests an environmental and public-health impact that within the U.S. could exceed that of the Volkswagen diesel scandal, given the prevalence of such trucks.” https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1130445_illegal-emissions-tampering-on-diesel-trucks-is-rampant-and-apparently-a-big-business
“Aftermarket truck mods pollute as much as 9 million extra pickups : The EPA estimates 550,000 medium pickup trucks have disabled emissions controls.” https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/12/truck-emissions-mods-pollute-more-than-dieselgate-epa-says/
EPA report: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/epa-on-tampered-diesel-pickups-11-20/6d70536b06182ad2/full.pdf
8AM MST, tomorrow morning, 2nd
Is VW’s Fraud the End of Large-Scale Corporate Deception? (Harvard Business Review 9/29/15) https://hbr.org/2015/09/is-vws-fraud-the-end-of-large-scale-corporate-deception
“VW Lost Its Moral Compass in Quest for Growth” (Wall Street Journal 9/15/15) https://www.wsj.com/articles/vw-lost-its-moral-compass-in-quest-for-growth-1443115862
Volkswagen’s April Fool’s joke backfires spectacularly https://www.creativebloq.com/news/volkswagen-april-fools-disaster
Reuters 3/30/21: German automaker Volkswagen’s U.S. unit confirmed Tuesday it will rename its U.S. operations as “Voltswagen of America” as it shifts its focus to electric vehicles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw931yxCleQ