As Volkswagen Exec Heads to the Slammer, an Engineer Awaits His Fate

Not that I know of. There's a difference between a genuine error and deliberate fraud. Even if the results of incompetence are worse, it tends to not get prosecuted as aggressively as outright premeditated attempts to break the law.

Nein! Zee Obama Administration set zee precedent early on - telegraphed widely by Eric "Place" Holder and continued by Loretta -"Do Nothing" Lynch - that zee enforcement of true law & order by the Department of Justice & U.S. Government (on behalf of zee citizens) against corporate citizens would be exceedingly and rarely enforced in such a way whereby a) any executive was criminally prosecuted, or b) revenue or profits were genuinely or meaningfully impacted by any significant penalties or fines on a relative basis (especially true of Wall Street Firms, banks and "Investment" Entities - that serve as a major source of both D & R campaign funding), so it was normal to see firms ,Ikea Goldman Sachs pay an agreed upon (i.e. settlement) fine equating to approx 1/2 of a percent of the gains they reaped from clearly illegal behavior. If one didn't know any better, they'd probably come to believe that the system of justice no longer has relevance to or is applicable to corporations, particularly of the financial kind, based on real world, factual events, transgressions and clear violations of established law (even serious violations).

Not Yet April, that I am aware of. That is because Korea doesn't waste time with "innocent until proven guilty" and the attorneys holding GM accountable issue are more interested in the money they can acquire from the loss of life one than justice being served. U.S. attorneys won't waste time to prosecute, they will look for ways to generate income from this tragedy.

@bikegoesbaa You would think negligence would be enough.

@FOG Just like now with Volkswagen. If they bleed them too much they will just file bankruptcy and tell everyone FU.

@DeadWeight Alternate explanation: for the entirety of human history, money and resources have reliably provided significant immunity to the law as applied to common people. The current legal near-invincibility enjoyed by the wealthy is just a direct continuation of this unsurprising trend. This applies both to individuals and large corporations. Well-capitalized celebrities routinely beat charges that would ruin a regular person; or they get off with a slap on the wrist. Vince Neil only did 15 days in jail and he *killed somebody* way back in 1984. This dynamic definitely did not start with the Obama administration. Nobody went to jail for Love Canal or the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire either.

@bikegoesbaa I have a sneaky feeling there will be fewer fines and more Get Out Of Jail Free cards issued to corporations by our glorious new administration

@April...Should we lock up the executives at Takata ? Why stop there ? . Lets lock up every management guy at every car company that authorized using Takata Air bags

@mikey Good idea.

@April...I don't 100 percent disagree with you. Unfortunately, it just don't work that way : )

@April S No I wouldn't, as intent is a major determinant in the severity of punishment. This is a longstanding concept, and not something that was just invented recently to benefit GM. In general it appears that the sentences for criminal fraud are significantly higher than those for negligent homicide in a given jurisdiction.

@ bikegoesbaa: Thanks for clarifying this so succinctly. There is no moral equivalence between the GM debacle and the VW scandal, but that meme persists in these pages.

the guy jailed was tried by a South Korean court, in Korea. what does GM have to do with this?

@bikegoesbaa It was not a genuine error. It was a deliberate attempt at deception. GM's engineer tried to cover it up by changing the part without changing the part number. Period. He SAYS he does not remember, but that is BS. Besides, if this were a Clean Water Act violation, it would not matter if it were an error/mistake or fraud. The US Gov. would per sue criminal charges.

@April S Trump Derangement Syndrome.

@April S Is it hard coming up with fresh riddles all the time to ask the people who want to cross your bridge?

@DeadWeight Does anyone read what deadweight writes any more? It sounds like a drunk Archie Bunker muttering a combination of Breitbart and zerohedge.

@JD-Shifty Drunk perhaps but nuggets of truth throughout. I challenge you to do better. Show us the way.

@28-Cars-Later If JD-Shifty thinks I post while drinking on TTAC, he'd love my p!ss & vinegar diatribes when I actually AM DRINKING. He also has another user name on TTAC (how shifty).