Judge sentences Volkswagen to $2.8B criminal fine for emissions cheating

[Eugene]

Source: Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — Volkswagen must pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine for purposely building a diesel engine equipped with software to cheat on greenhouse gas emissions tests.

U.S. District Judge Sean Cox on Friday accepted a plea agreement reached in January between the automaker and the federal government.

Cox said the $2.8 billion criminal penalty is large enough, even though Volkwagen's offenses, spanning a decade, were done on purpose.

"This is a case of deliberate massive fraud perpetrated by VW management," Cox said today. "This case also involves a failure of the VW supervisory board, which is government, labor and shareholders."

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2017/04/21/volkswagen-diesel-scandal-hearing/100739290/

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Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press Published 10:56 a.m. ET April 21, 2017 | Updated 1 hour ago

[ansible]

1. Good

They should've been punished a long time ago for making some of the most unreliable cars ever as well

[snooper2]

2. I think you may have VW confused with Renault LOL

[tenorly]

6. Or FIAT.

"Fix It Again, Tony."

[cstanleytech]

3. So in essence they are actually being allowed to keep the profits they made all those years. nt

[Massacure]

9. Not really

$2.8 billion is just the criminal fine. They spent about $18 billion to buy back and retrofit all of the vehicles. Going back to 2006, they've never made more than about 12.5 billion euros (around 15 billion dollars).

The United States also indicted six executives on fraud charges, but only one of them will likely face prison time. Five of them are in Germany, and from what I've read Germany does not extradite their citizens to non-EU countries.

[cstanleytech]

10. Unless they only made less than 21 billion total over that entire period then they are

still being allowed to profit.

[ProudLib72]

4. They could have had to pay 17 to 34 billion

What I want to know is if $2.8 billion actually hurts the execs who made the decision.

[Txbluedog]

5. Please

By the time they appeal the decision and negotiate the amount it'll be $2,800

[tiptonic]

7. Price goes up

So all that this means is, the price of their cars go up. No one goes to jail. Just love our 'justice' system.

[nitpicker]

8. Link ro the DoJ PR

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/volkswagen-ag-sentenced-connection-conspiracy-cheat-us-emissions-tests