The Triumph of Doubt by David Michaels

Author:David Michaels [Michaels, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780190922689
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

When the tests with the monkeys made world headlines, animal rights groups were furious. Studies had already been done exposing human volunteers to low levels of NOx; there was no scientific need for additional studies with monkeys to learn the same thing. Executives with VW, BMW, and Daimler were shocked, shocked that the study even took place. Volkswagen CEO Matthias Muller called the study “unethical and repugnant.”

And how about “rigged”? The monkeys had been put through an experiment with software rigged by VW that ensured a fraudulent result, even if Lovelace was kept in the dark about the emissions control deactivation in actual driving conditions. By this point in what had become the long-running VW scandal, it might have been hard to drive the company’s reputation further down, but this story did so. VW apologized profusely: “Volkswagen Group explicitly distances itself from all forms of animal cruelty. Animal testing contradicts our own ethical standards.” But VW wasn’t blaming its executives, of course. “We ask forgiveness for this bad behavior and for the poor judgment of some individuals.”41

Which individuals did Volkswagen mean to call out? Initially it was some junior employees at VW and Daimler, who were suspended. This maneuver comfortably shifted the blame from upper management, including those who had attended the regular EUGT meetings where the study was discussed. Subsequently, CEO Muller announced that Thomas Steg, VW’s head of foreign relations and sustainability, had known about the study since May 2013 and will “assume full responsibility” for the scandal.42 Steg was suspended from his position but was fully exonerated by a VW internal audit and returned to his post less than six months later. As the U.S. and German investigations proceeded, though, more details have emerged, contradicting VW’s claims attributing the misbehavior to lower level employees. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), then–Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn and other VW executives first learned about the defeat device in 2007, before the first device was even installed. The SEC alleges they were warned that selling vehicles with these devices would be problematic for the car manufacturer if their subterfuge was discovered, but those concerns were ignored.43

James Liang, the engineer who wrote the original defeat device software and made sure it was working perfectly in New Mexico, was the first VW employee convicted on criminal charges in Dieselgate. In August 2017, he pled guilty for his role in the conspiracy to defraud both U.S. regulators and VW customers. The judge presiding over the case felt the extent of the fraud was so significant that, even though Liang cooperated with prosecutors to help in their case against Volkswagen (which paid $4.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties in the United States alone) and its executives, he sentenced Liang to 40 months in prison and imposed a fine of $200,000.44 He and Schmidt will be deported to Germany when they finish their prison time.

The biggest indictment in Dieselgate came in May 2018: former CEO Winterkorn, for fraud and conspiracy relating to his role in deceiving U.

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