You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Former Volkswagen CEO Criminally Charged for Violating Clean Air Act

HeadlineMay 04, 2018

The U.S. Justice Department charged a former Volkswagen CEO with criminal conspiracy Thursday over his role in rigging diesel engines to circumvent air pollution standards. A federal grand jury indictment unsealed in Detroit says CEO Martin Winterkorn knew in 2014 that his company’s cars contained software that lowered carbon dioxide emissions under testing conditions, even though the cars’ emissions rose dramatically under real-world conditions. Volkswagen has admitted to rigging some 11 million vehicles worldwide. The automaker has already paid $26 billion in fines and civil damages, and faces a $10 billion lawsuit by shareholders.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top