Volkswagen engineers in Germany are afraid to do business trips to the U.S. because one employee had his passport confiscated by U.S. investigators, reported Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest subscription daily newspaper, on Saturday.
The paper goes on to explain Volkswagen believes U.S. authorities want to question certain engineers and are preventing their exit from the country, and evasion of questioning, by confiscating their passports.
A spokesman for Volkswagen told Reuters: “Volkswagen employees are still traveling to the United States. Everything else is speculation.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung stated it is unlikely that German employees will travel to the U.S. until assurances are made, including newly minted group CEO Matthias Müller.
“We need legal security here before he can fly to the United States.”
Interesting that they fear accountability by the US government more than their own government.
US prisons are more scary.
Germany rarely goes after Captains of Industry.
“We need legal security here before he can fly to the United States.”
Whoever made that statement should put down the crack pipe and go get some fresh air. No one can get legal security when travelling to another country, unless they are diplomats.
They could have gotten legal security by not committing any crimes punishable under US law…..
BINGO!
The emissions evasions are felonies in the US,but more realistically unlawful, but not illegal acts elsewhere.
This still points to the tail wagging the dog and unless proven otherwise, the Corporation is clean, but not its employees
This could birth a remake of Casablanca with a stranded VW engineer as Victor Laszlo and Mark Rosenkind as Major Strasser. Who could play Rick and Ilsa?
I’d kill to play Captain Renault… “I’m shocked, shocked…”
The head of the EPA’s testing regime would have to be Renault….
We shouldn’t forget the severity of the whole case: willfully committing fraud on an unprecedented scale. Make sure people are available for questioning. Even go so far as holding EU authorities responsible for allowing a climate to exist in which fraudulent behavior was practically invited.
Round up the usual suspects.
Pretty typical EU mentality: transparency, responsibility, accountability: all good things for other people to have. Security: what I need to have after committing a crime.
Meanwhile at GM…
VW, as it was in the past, is history. The costs of fines, legal fees, more legal fees, compensation and falling sales all leading to lower stock prices, credit downgrades, increased borrowing costs will finish them off. VW will have to sell one or more of its brands like Porsche or Bentley to get enough capital to continue in business. Too big to fail may be the case, but too big to hemorrage money for years is not the case.
@gasser,
Standing in NA sounds terrible, but not in Europe. It would be a very different issue, if management was the major instigator of irregulaties, but it is coming out that was probably not the case
VW’s not going anywhere. At least not globally.
In the U.S., however, that’s always a possibility…
If or when they get their passports are returned the should have to extract them from their own anal orifices. Or each other’s anal orifices if this happens to more than one.
Only a court can order a passport confiscated. This story is nonsense….
Yes, it’s my understanding the passport is the property of the issuing government, not the bearer, under international law. Unless he is held in detention, the nearest consulate only need issue another.
Arrest or extradition are options, but guilt will be hard to prove since everyone in the chain can claim ignorance outside their immediate actions. Regardless, violation of regulatory compliance is a serious offense, at least it used to be.
I wonder if this is the beginning of the end of internal combustion. Depending on how much more ugliness is unravelled as real world emissions truth.
Someone has been reading too many Cold War spy novels. Replacement papers could be obtained from a consulate. And if a person is on some list of fugitives, it’s hard to see how crossing the border would be hard. Millions of illegal aliens have waltzed into the US; surely it’s not that hard to waltz right back out.
Exactly. And as undocumented immigrants they also can always seek refuge in San Francisco or other city with liberal policies which will not cooperate with US Government. VW should leave US long time ago. They were stupid for not doing it and now have to price.
Volkswagen sales are still excellent so what difference does this all make for the company. It is a pointless story. Unlike the GM ignition scandal nobody has died from this Volkswagen scandal.
Sources including NY Times Report sales were “Flat” for month of October, which is typically one of the best months of the year….
And with respect to last statement, “no one has died….” that is exactly the sort of thinking which put VW in this very predicament…best not to rationalize in these situations.
Wonder when Audi, a great and legendary brand, will announce it is going to be an independent company separate and apart from V-Dubbaya?
Never will
bk_moto’s Laws of Poor Journalism:
#1: Whenever a headline is phrased as a question, the answer to the question is always “no.”