VW Engineer Has Been Sentenced to 40-Month Prison Stay in Diesel Emissions Case

If you can’t do time, don’t do the crime! I think that’s a good saying to live by because even if you’re smart enough to be an engineer for one of the biggest car companies in the world, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be smart enough to pull off a stunt like Volkswagen did and get away with it. When they tried to get away with producing vehicles that couldn’t live up to emissions standards while trying to mask it, well, we all saw just how much of a backfire effect that had on the automaker and now, the consequences are finally coming down.

“A federal judge in Detroit sentenced former engineer James Liang to 40 months in prison on Friday (Aug 25) for his role in Volkswagen’s multiyear scheme to sell diesel cars that generated more pollution than US clean air rules allowed.

US District Court Judge Sean Cox also ordered Liang to pay a US$200,000 fine, 10 times the amount sought by federal prosecutors.” –Straits Times

The whole idea behind the punishment is to convince other automakers that if they’re trying to pull a familiar stunt that it just isn’t worth it. This news comes in addition to multiple other fines including an executive that was slapped with $400,000 in fines and a possible seven years in jail time. It will be some time until we’re finally able to see where everything sits when all is said and done but as of now, it looks like this is shaping up to be one of the biggest scandals in the history of the automotive industry.

Be sure to tell us what you think about this case and the punishments that have been flowing out as of now. Do you think that these the punishment matches the crime in a case like this or were you expecting it to end in another way?