That's why I'm a little crestfallen that an engineer was first to be charged. By all means, charge the guilty & complicit, but I'm apprehensive the order could aide the narrative VW's execs tried to spin at first ('This company-wide scandal was clearly the work of exactly one rouge engineer') and help them get out scot-free.
most likely they are going after this like a drug dealing or racketeering outfit, from the bottom up, using plea bargain testimony to make the path easier as they go.
but if not, yeah, this would be a farcical miscarriage of justice if a bunch of engineers end up taking the fall for this.
"Engineer" at VW doesn’t mean he wasn’t in a managing position – VW almost exclusively promotes their engineers to managers, and rarely ever hires external talent.
ISTM this policy could ensure that no experienced engineer or manager whose time at other firms taught her to scrupulously follow the law and expect the same of colleagues, could join the team and expose their ongoing schemes. It's kind of like how the mafia works. One doesn't get "made" without a half a dozen murders to one's name, to discourage defection. When a young engineer starts at VW, she wouldn't be shown the truly evil shit, but she might be encouraged to cut a few ethical corners. Once she's done that a few times, they own her.
On the other hand, it ensures the managers, up to the CEO, actually understand what they're talking about.
No more dealing with managers not understanding anything about what they manage.
Doing this — only promoting your oen engineers to managers — improves efficiency by many times.
And the story of VW in the US started with the EPA violating the law and discriminating against VW for a few years, after which most likely even experienced talent would say "if they break the law to keep us out and protect their local industry, let's break the same law to get us in". (Read more about this in the SPIEGEL).
