Volkswagen executive pleads guilty in U.S. emissions cheating case

[rooster59]

Volkswagen executive pleads guilty in U.S. emissions cheating case

By Nick Carey

 

FILE PHOTO - Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt, charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company's diesel emissions scandal is shown in this booking photo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. provided on January 9, 2017. Courtesy of Broward County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS

 

DETROIT (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG <VOWG_p.DE> executive Oliver Schmidt pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit in connection with a massive diesel emissions scandal that has cost the German automaker as much as $25 billion.

 

Under a plea agreement, Schmidt will face up to seven years in prison and a fine of between $40,000 and $400,000 after admitting to conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violating clean air laws.

 

Schmidt will be sentenced on Dec. 6.

 

In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges that it installed secret software in vehicles in order to elude emissions tests.

 

U.S. prosecutors have charged eight current and former Volkswagen executives so far.

 

"Schmidt participated in a fraudulent VW scam that prioritised corporate sales at the expense of the honesty of emissions tests and trust of the American purchasers," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean Williams.

 

"Schmidt, along with each and every official involved in this emissions scandal, will be held fully accountable for their actions by the Department of Justice as this investigation continues."

 

Earlier this year, Schmidt was charged with 11 felony counts and federal prosecutors said he could have faced a maximum of up to 169 years in prison. As part of his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop most of the counts and Schmidt consented to be deported at the end of his prison sentence.

 

Schmidt was in charge of the company’s environmental and engineering office in Auburn Hills until February 2015, where he oversaw emissions issues.

 

'CHEATING'

 

After being informed of the existence of the emissions software in the summer of 2015, according to the agreement, Schmidt conspired with other executives to avoid disclosing "intentional cheating" by the automaker in a bid to seek regulatory approval for its model 2016 VW 2 litre diesel vehicles.

 

During the period in question, Schmidt was working at the company’s Wolfsburg, Germany, headquarters as "one of three subordinates” to the head of engine development. He was arrested when he travelled to the United States in early January.

 

Volkswagen said on Friday it "continues to cooperate with investigations by the Department of Justice into the conduct of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters."

 

As part of the agreement, Volkswagen agreed to spend as much as $25 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners and regulators over polluting diesel vehicles and offered to buy back about 500,000 vehicles.

 

James Liang, a VW employee who pleaded guilty to misleading regulators, is cooperating with prosecutors and will be sentenced on Aug. 25.

 

Among those indicted earlier were Heinz-Jakob Neusser, former head of development for VW Brand and two former heads of engine development, Jens Hadler and Richard Dorenkamp.

 

Most of the Volkswagen executives charged are in Germany and may not travel to the United States since Germany typically does not extradite its citizens.

 

Last month, the Justice Department charged former Audi AG manager Giovanni Pamio with directing employees to design software enabling thousands of Audi diesel cars to beat U.S. emissions tests. He was arrested in Germany. Audi is a unit of VW.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-05

[impulse]

Wow.  If I were one of the indicted guys, I believe I'd be staying in Germany and not traveling anywhere that has an extradition treaty with the US of A.

 

Which begs the question, why haven't they been indicted in any European countries, like Germany for example, where they cost investors $$ billions with their fraudulent acts.  Not to mention the environmental aspect.

 

[Dustdevil]

36 minutes ago, impulse said:

Wow.  If I were one of the indicted guys, I believe I'd be staying in Germany and not traveling anywhere that has an extradition treaty with the US of A.

 

Which begs the question, why haven't they been indicted in any European countries, like Germany for example, where they cost investors $$ billions with their fraudulent acts.  Not to mention the environmental aspect.

 

The Europeans as a whole are finally getting their act together, as three or four major German manufacturers are accused of colluding in emissions fraud.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Dustdevil

[anon467367354]

The cars in America are different than the cars outside America. A Ford Fiesta for example in Thailand or Europe gets twice the gas mileage than those sold in the USA.

When is the US inc going to be charged with tampering with carburetors and fuel injection. If you do anything to enhance mileage in the US, like change the carburetor with one from say Thailand, it's considered illegal. I have heard many times that when importing a car from another country, the carburetor has to be changed, and the mileage drops by about half. When are those criminals going to be brought to justice?

[VocalNeal]

Meanwhile in a related story sales of VW Tiguan SUV went up 48%. to over 172,000 units. 

Edited August 5, 2017 by VocalNeal

[ilostmypassword]

10 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

The cars in America are different than the cars outside America. A Ford Fiesta for example in Thailand or Europe gets twice the gas mileage than those sold in the USA.

When is the US inc going to be charged with tampering with carburetors and fuel injection. If you do anything to enhance mileage in the US, like change the carburetor with one from say Thailand, it's considered illegal. I have heard many times that when importing a car from another country, the carburetor has to be changed, and the mileage drops by about half. When are those criminals going to be brought to justice?

You got any sources for those mileage figures? They seem very suspect.

[janclaes47]

16 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

The cars in America are different than the cars outside America. A Ford Fiesta for example in Thailand or Europe gets twice the gas mileage than those sold in the USA.

When is the US inc going to be charged with tampering with carburetors and fuel injection. If you do anything to enhance mileage in the US, like change the carburetor with one from say Thailand, it's considered illegal. I have heard many times that when importing a car from another country, the carburetor has to be changed, and the mileage drops by about half. When are those criminals going to be brought to justice?

 

More than 20 years ago already a Volkswagen golf would use 5 liter per 100km in Europe.

 

Are there any golf in Thailand today that use that little fuel?

[Naam]

10 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

20 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

The cars in America are different than the cars outside America. A Ford Fiesta for example in Thailand or Europe gets twice the gas mileage than those sold in the USA.

When is the US inc going to be charged with tampering with carburetors and fuel injection. If you do anything to enhance mileage in the US, like change the carburetor with one from say Thailand, it's considered illegal. I have heard many times that when importing a car from another country, the carburetor has to be changed, and the mileage drops by about half. When are those criminals going to be brought to justice?

You got any sources for those mileage figures? They seem very suspect.

 the figure are not suspect, they are plain BS!

[VocalNeal]

8 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

You got any sources for those mileage figures? They seem very suspect

Ford has websites for both USA and UK. All the numbers are there.

[ilostmypassword]

Just now, VocalNeal said:

Ford has websites for both USA and UK. All the numbers are there.

Since the poster cited Thailand, I went to the ford thailand website. No mileage or kilometrage figures listed.

https://www.ford.co.th/en/cars/fiesta/models/5dr-1-5l-trend-at/?intcmp=vhp-return-model

[impulse]

36 minutes ago, Dustdevil said:

The Europeans as a whole are finally getting their act together, as three or four major German manufacturers are accused of colluding in emissions fraud.

 

Huge difference between finding "the manufacturers" in collusion and fining the crap out of their shareholders, and prosecuting individuals who actually did the dirty deeds and took bigger bonuses as a reward.  It may be a start.  We'll see.

[ilostmypassword]

1 minute ago, impulse said:

 

Huge difference between finding "the manufacturers" in collusion and fining the crap out of their shareholders, and prosecuting individuals who actually did the dirty deeds and took bigger bonuses as a reward.  It may be a start.  We'll see.

In a lot of the world, the legal name for a corporation is limited liability company. That means that shareholders are pretty much immune to lawsuits brought against a corporation. Now, if by fining the shareholders you mean fining the company and thus reducing dividends, that's different.

[impulse]

6 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

In a lot of the world, the legal name for a corporation is limited liability company. That means that shareholders are pretty much immune to lawsuits brought against a corporation. Now, if by fining the shareholders you mean fining the company and thus reducing dividends, that's different.

 

That's who gets to pay the fines...in the form of reduced stock value and smaller (if any) dividends.   Meanwhile, the guys whose bonuses were big and fat while it was going on don't seem to be getting any clawed back.   Privatizing the benefits, while the public takes on the risks.  Like the banksters who wreck the economy every decade or so...

 

[anon467367354]

19 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Since the poster cited Thailand, I went to the ford thailand website. No mileage or kilometrage figures listed.

https://www.ford.co.th/en/cars/fiesta/models/5dr-1-5l-trend-at/?intcmp=vhp-return-model

try more than one link. Isn't 26.3 km/l about 62 mpg???? Am I missing something here without stooping to calling names?

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2017_Ford_Fiesta.shtml USA

http://thailand.carbay.com/en/new-cars/ford/fiesta Thailand

 

[impulse]

2 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

24 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Since the poster cited Thailand, I went to the ford thailand website. No mileage or kilometrage figures listed.

https://www.ford.co.th/en/cars/fiesta/models/5dr-1-5l-trend-at/?intcmp=vhp-return-model

try more than one link. Isn't 26.3 km/l about 62 mpg???? Am I missing something here without stooping to calling names?

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2017_Ford_Fiesta.shtml USA

http://thailand.carbay.com/en/new-cars/ford/fiesta Thailand

 

Before comparing the numbers, you'd have to know the methodology, and the odds that the countries' agencies in charge are in a position to call anyone out for telling whoppers...  In the USA, anyone calling out the mfg for fibbing is a watchdog.  In Thailand, they're a defendant in a defamation trial.

 

[ilostmypassword]

19 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

try more than one link. Isn't 26.3 km/l about 62 mpg???? Am I missing something here without stooping to calling names?

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2017_Ford_Fiesta.shtml USA

http://thailand.carbay.com/en/new-cars/ford/fiesta Thailand

 

But he claimed that the European and Thai versions performed better. I went to Ford UK and Ford Thailand sites but couldn't find kilometer per liter info for gasoline powered model.

[anon467367354]

20 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Before comparing the numbers, you'd have to know the methodology, and the odds that the countries' agencies in charge are in a position to call anyone out for telling whoppers...  In the USA, anyone calling out the mfg for fibbing is a watchdog.  In Thailand, they're a defendant in a defamation trial.

 

I totally agree, km/l in your country is probably different than km/l in Thailand.

how could it possibly be the same right? I see a lot of talk and attacks and accusations, but only one person here is posting facts.

Let's see if we can twist to fit our ridiculous rebuttals shall we?

[Naam]

58 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

26.3 km/l about 62 mpg???? Am I missing something here without stooping to calling names?

you are missing

Quote

Mileage

15.6 kmpl

http://thailand.carbay.com/en/new-cars/ford/fiesta/specifications

[farcanell]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

That's who gets to pay the fines...in the form of reduced stock value and smaller (if any) dividends.   Meanwhile, the guys whose bonuses were big and fat while it was going on don't seem to be getting any clawed back.   Privatizing the benefits, while the public takes on the risks.  Like the banksters who wreck the economy every decade or so...

 

Shareholders appoint these fat cats.... shareholders need to hold them accountable, and be accountable for the way they vote at shareholders meetings.

 

penalising them ( reduced dividends), may make them think twice, at the next shareholders meeting, instead of voting for the guy who promises the best return on their investment.

[Grouse]

This all nonsense.

 

From a scientific / engineering point of view these fuel consumption statistics are meaningless. They are a marketing aid for dummies

 

Modern engine control units continuously monitor many parameters and automatically adjust engine settings in real time to achieve optimal performance for the prevailing conditions. 

 

This is vastly superior to the way the way things were in the past! One could fiddle with carburettors and ignition timing to achieve optimum acceleration, optimum pulling power (torque) or maximise economy (nobody thought about emissions) but not all at the same time!

 

So now, to achieve the figures glibly quoted by car bores everywhere, ALL manufacturers  rig the tests: tank nearly empty, one skinny driver, no spare, fan belt off, A/C off, low viscosity oil, air filter out, over inflated tyres and on and on and on.

 

So what are we trying to prove here? What is most important? Emissions? Consumption? Performance?

 

These issues are MUCH more complicated than people think.

 

(Putting VW in the stocks won't do much to lift American automotive engineering prowess IMHO)

[impulse]

3 hours ago, gr8fldanielle said:

I totally agree, km/l in your country is probably different than km/l in Thailand.

how could it possibly be the same right? I see a lot of talk and attacks and accusations, but only one person here is posting facts.

Let's see if we can twist to fit our ridiculous rebuttals shall we?

 

Nobody's posting facts.  The closest we have here to facts is Grouse's post above this one.

 

Some are regurgitating marketing hype and some anecdotes.  But that's not the same as posting facts.  For all the reasons posted by Grouse, and a few dozen more he didn't get into because they would take pages to explain.

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by impulse

[anon467367354]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

Nobody's posting facts.  The closest we have here to facts is Grouse's post above this one.

 

Some are regurgitating marketing hype and some anecdotes.  But that's not the same as posting facts.  For all the reasons posted by Grouse, and a few dozen more he didn't get into because they would take pages to explain.

 

how did you determine the difference between marketing hype and some anecdotes vs facts? What is it about the post by Grouse that rings so true for you and what other few dozen, just name 1 or 2 reasons rather than take pages to explain? How did you determine which is the truth? I think this would be good for everyone to know.

[anon467367354]

4 hours ago, Naam said:

you are missing

http://thailand.carbay.com/en/new-cars/ford/fiesta/specifications

so they only posted the city mileage? Aren't there usually two, city and highway, or is that the average between the two.

What am I missing vs what you're missing?  What have proven with your little post?

[Grouse]

56 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

so they only posted the city mileage? Aren't there usually two, city and highway, or is that the average between the two.

What am I missing vs what you're missing?  What have proven with your little post?

Neither is useful as an actual value. As a comparison, maybe a little more useful but not much. 

 

This is real world engineering. For the lay person, COMPARING  consumption figures might be of use but the absolute numbers are meaningless. 

 

Do do you know what a Lamda sensor is? Crankshaft position sensor? If so, we can discuss.

 

Otherwise, choose a car you like the look of. Keep it regularly serviced by a main dealer, and don't use cheap supermarket fuel. Drive gently and avoid accelerating and braking every few seconds. It will do you and the environment a power of good!

 

Driving a Land Rover V8 teaches one to drive economically. ( But it still

amuses the child in me to leave the motorbikes for dead at the lights as they watch 2 tonnes of Birmingham steel disappear over the horizon! Emissions? Don't even think about it!)

Edited August 5, 2017 by Grouse

[Grouse]

26.3km/l ? 

[impulse]

3 hours ago, gr8fldanielle said:

how did you determine the difference between marketing hype and some anecdotes vs facts? What is it about the post by Grouse that rings so true for you and what other few dozen, just name 1 or 2 reasons rather than take pages to explain? How did you determine which is the truth? I think this would be good for everyone to know.

 

You can start here:

 

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/how_tested.shtml

 

and here:

 

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml#high-speed

 

And when you find the similar test specifications for fuel economy testing in Thailand (good luck with that), compare them point by point to see where they differ.  That's how we in the engineering field would do it.  And have done it many times for all kinds of equipment performance testing comparisons across borders.

 

[Grouse]

17 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

You can start here:

 

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/how_tested.shtml

 

and here:

 

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml#high-speed

 

And when you find the similar test specifications for fuel economy testing in Thailand (good luck with that), compare them point by point to see where they differ.  That's how we in the engineering field would do it.  And have done it many times for all kinds of equipment performance testing comparisons across borders.

 

Manufacturers test their own vehicles—usually pre-production prototypes

 

No more questions, your honour!

 

(laughably facile and reflecting the current anti expert, low appreciation of science and engineering in the West generally)

[Dustdevil]

On 8/4/2017 at 9:56 PM, gr8fldanielle said:

The cars in America are different than the cars outside America. A Ford Fiesta for example in Thailand or Europe gets twice the gas mileage than those sold in the USA.

When is the US inc going to be charged with tampering with carburetors and fuel injection. If you do anything to enhance mileage in the US, like change the carburetor with one from say Thailand, it's considered illegal. I have heard many times that when importing a car from another country, the carburetor has to be changed, and the mileage drops by about half. When are those criminals going to be brought to justice?

There are no more carburetors in modern cars, not for at least 15 years. Why on earth would the U.S. be against better fuel efficiency? Not only are the individual states esp. California strict about emissions and fuel consumption but even the oil companies disagree with Trump's mentality. They know what the future is anyway--electric and other sustainable drives.

[Dustdevil]

23 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

But he claimed that the European and Thai versions performed better. I went to Ford UK and Ford Thailand sites but couldn't find kilometer per liter info for gasoline powered model.

Nobody wants a 1.0 l engine in the United States--not suitable for the roads, not even within some cities such as Houston. You need (a) enough power to merge into the vast network of expressways in Houston and (b) you're asking for the wrong end of the stick in a collision, since Americans generally drive large vehicles.