An Environmental Crime

If you thought the automotive industry wasn’t taking emissions seriously and didn’t seem to care about the effect pollutants have on the air we breathe, there’s no doubt they will now. In recent news, we have seen the first of the Volkswagen employees being prosecuted and jailed for their part in the emissions scandal that has been part of the automotive news for nearly two years. This may be the first of many, or it may just be the first in a few that will be prosecuted and jailed for the actions that took place over a period of time.

The Engineer

James Liang was an engineer for Volkswagen from 1983 until his recent firing when it was discovered he played an important part in the diesel emissions scandal. He spent many years in Germany with the company and only moved to the US division in 2008, but he assisted in the development of the defeat device that was placed into over half a million US vehicles that were sold between 2009 and 2015. These 2.0 and 3.0-liter diesel powered vehicles spewed out as much as 40 times the legal amount of emissions from their tailpipe, adding to the pollution in an illegal manner.

Liang pleaded guilty last September after being charged in June 2016 and he assisted federal investigators in hopes to receive a lighter sentence. While the defense lawyers were expecting to bring about a sentence that included home detention and some community service, Liang will spend up to 40 months in prison and will have to pay a $200,000 fine for his part in the scandal. The judge in the case has made an example of James Liang and cited is comfortable lifestyle during the time when he was defrauding the American public with the toxic defeat device as reason enough to put him behind bars.

The Message

With this engineer in prison for the next several months, it seems the automotive industry should heed a strong warning that the US isn’t going to look favorably on those who attempt to pollute the air or cheat on the testing. While the defeat-device equipped vehicles from VW certainly brought to light an embarrassing fact about the EPA testing, had James Liang and others at Volkswagen not chosen to head down a path of deception, he wouldn’t be in prison right now and we wouldn’t have this scandal to discuss.

Unfortunately for the US, but fortunate for those that are former employees of VW, Germany will not extradite its own citizens for prosecution. So far only one other member of the VW team that has an outstanding warrant has been captured and held in the US. Oliver Schmidt was captured in Florida when he made a layover on a flight that was taking him back to Germany after his tropical vacation. That will likely be the last tropical vacation for Schmidt for a long time and certainly serves as a warning to the rest of the former VW team to avoid the US or be punished for their crimes.