German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal

Personal liability and deterrence

• Many commenters welcome the prison sentences as a rare but necessary example of holding individuals—not just companies—accountable.
• Argument: As long as wrongdoing only leads to corporate fines, it’s just a “cost of doing business.” Jail time changes executives’ personal risk calculus.
• Others stress the need for clear standards: executives should be liable when they “knew or should have known,” not merely for any employee misconduct.

Unequal justice and “rich vs. poor” crime

• Strong theme: small thefts by individuals often bring harsh punishment, while large‑scale corporate fraud or pollution yields mild fines.
• Examples raised: 2008 financial crisis, COVID profiteering, wage theft, HSBC money laundering.
• Some emphasize that pollution rules effectively legalize a certain level of harm: the scandal was about killing “too many” people rather than the underlying health damage, which remains legal below limits.

Corporations, limited liability, and who bears blame

• Debate over whether limited liability is the real shield: one side claims it lets executives hide behind the corporate entity; the other notes it only caps civil liability of shareholders and does not bar criminal charges.
• Disagreement on collective punishment: one view says fines are appropriate because everyone in the firm benefits; critics respond that this unfairly hits workers and small shareholders while decision‑makers walk away with bonuses.
• Proposals include: “corporate death penalty,” barring negligent board members, forcing state ownership stakes, or mandatory bonds for directors.

VW case specifics: scope, timing, and targets

• Several note it took about a decade from discovery to these sentences, and only some mid/high‑level managers (e.g., heads of diesel development and electronics) received real prison time; others got suspended sentences.
• Frustration that top leadership and board members largely avoided prison, with health issues and constitutional bans on extraditing nationals cited as factors.
• Some recall earlier U.S. prosecutions of VW engineers and managers, including one caught while vacationing in the U.S., as contrasted with Germany’s slower process.

Wider context: industry and regulatory comparisons

• Discussion of whether strict enforcement hurts domestic industry relative to foreign competitors; many reject this as a justification for tolerating crime.
• VW’s scandal is contrasted with Boeing’s 737 MAX settlements, where U.S. authorities again opted for a deal over individual prosecution.
• Diesel’s long‑term decline and VW’s push into EVs are mentioned as downstream effects, though views differ on whether compliant diesel is truly “impossible.”