Ex-Volkswagen CEO Reappears, Claims He Didn't Know Nuthin'

Consider the following scenario, a mix of fact and conjecture: Winterkorn (and Piëch): - detail obsessed micromanagers; - Piëch being a engine engineering engineer by training, having picked out the FI system for these engines, having apparently decided to cancel the 1,000€/car (when VW's only cleared 800€/car profit) AD Blue licensing agreement with Daimler, would seem to be up to his elbows in engine architecture decisions; - Wiko as Piëch's mini-me (Schabern! Schabbern would have wanted to be in on every detail; - maybe not as "open door" as they claim (it's tough to enter a c-suite in most companies, and mail/email go through many assistant filters - crisis issues tend to penetrate such filters though); - but having countless unofficial (as well as official) trusted source direct access channels feeding them info outside of the normal bureaucracy; - to help sort/manage such info, they had a professional fireman (think Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction but w/o the mustache, tux or NSX) to expose, manage and clean up crises. Nobody smart ignores the fireman; - the fireman doesn't waste time cleaning up things that are immaterial or handable by the line organization. He handles expensive, embarrassing, issues that risk the company or managements neck's; - if Wiko gets a call, letter, email from the fireman, it will captivate his attention, a good administrative assistant will put fireman communiques on the top of weekend reading as missing these risks bad things; - if Wiko learns of expensive (or stop-ship level) problems it will focus his mind and elicit questions of how much?, what?, who?, why? A recall of 500k cars, is bound to elicit these questions from all not in a coma, when it turns out to be emissions with fines, the red light is blinking and any later claim of not having details (what underling comes w/o details to a detail maniac?) Seems extremely implausible; - when patron/mentor Piëch hears from Wiko, this detail maniac will ask the same questions and the ejection light starts flashing (because even if in on the deal from the beginning, one doesn't want to be hung based on participation in obstruction at the end); - when Piëch and wife abruptly quit board of company their family mostly control (with the quote "I feel a growing distance to Wiko), it is less likely coincidence than proactive exit to support plausible deniability while rest of organization mobilizes under the don't get caught (at least until the 2016 cars are certified for sale). - when Wiko and the VW organization fail to find details or memories pointing upwards, it could be because the players in charge are still handpicked management from the old regime, some of which are on retainer to act as a firewall for the top two layers of control; - the former second layer of control, in his testimony yesterday, besides trying to save his own neck, appears to be playing the part of firewall on retainer.

Aw, maybe he really didn't know. Everyone knows Ferdinand Piech was running everything. Why hasn't HE been questioned? Answer: he knows where the bodies are buried - he probably buried most of 'em. It wasn't just the engineers who were afraid of him.