Would-Be Volkswagen Whistleblower Suddenly Drops Lawsuit
A former Volkswagen employee who claimed he was fired when the company discovered his plan to report it for obstruction of justice has dropped his lawsuit.
Daniel Donovan, an information manager working for Volkswagen’s data center in Auburn Hills, Michigan, withdrew the suit on June 9, according to the New York Times. Donovan had claimed he tried to prevent the destruction of documents related to the diesel emissions scandal.
The now-evaporated suit stated that Donovan began flagging data deletions made by a co-worker that started on September 18, 2015, the same day the scandal became public.
News of Donovan’s climbdown is only emerging now, and neither the former employee or the company will admit to why. Both parties refused to say whether a monetary deal was reached, but the timing is interesting.
Volkswagen, which still denies the claims made by Donovan, reached a settlement with U.S. lawmakers and owners of 2.0-liter TDI models earlier this week. The $15.3 billion it pledged to spend will get the automaker out of trouble with regulators, clients, 44 states and even the environment.
Registering an “11” on the suspicion meter is the fact that the statements obtained by the Times from Donovan’s lawyer and Volkswagen are spitting images of each other.
“(Donovan) has now voluntarily dismissed the complaint and has agreed to cooperate fully with the company’s internal investigations,” the letters read. “The matter has been resolved amicably to the satisfaction of all of the parties.”
It sounds like Volkswagen was very eager to put the diesel scandal behind it, and avoid a lengthy, headline-generating trial. The trouble isn’t over for the company, though. Besides having to fix or buy back the 11 million diesel vehicles involved in the scandal, not to mention the likelihood of further fines and lawsuits, the company’s brand chief and ex-CEO are under investigation by German prosecutors.
It isn’t known whether the Donovan case is related to reports that a Volkswagen manager implicitly told employees to delete defeat device evidence in August 2015, shortly before the scandal became public.
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