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Car-maker VW in cheating in emissions test shocker

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wizard993 said:
Your going to love this one guys......just click the URL below.


9272f39b-9f10-44e1-94b6-55a80f-560296e47963e.png

:thumb:
 
Prostitutes, Viagra-fuelled sex parties and a $750k fund to bribe German MPs: How latest emissions scandal shows VW has learned nothing from its murky past

Volkswagen has been mired in scandal and bribery claims for past 30 years
- Car giant laid on prostitutes at sex parties for German MPs to bypass employment practises that truncated production
- Set aside £500,000 'honeytrap' slush fund to lure union bosses into compromising positions and weaken their power
- Paid £1.2million in illegal 'sweeteners' to fund orgies and pay for luxury five-star hotels for supervisors

Car giant Volkswagen seems headed for the corporate scrapheap, dragging with it the reputation of the Made in Germany marque beloved around the globe. But the reality is the world's biggest car maker has been mired in controversy, corruption, sleaze and sex scandals for the past three decades. Industry experts say the 'Wolfsburg Fortress Mentality' - the town where the company has its headquarters - made arrogant bosses feel invincible in the face of competition and regulation.

Payments: The emissions scandal engulfing Volkswagen is not the first crisis to hit the troubled car marker. In 2005 it was the centre of a sex scandal which rocked Germany. VW's council works chief, Klaus Volkert, received £1.2million in bribes, some of which paid to his Brazilian lover Adriana Barros.

Payments: The emissions scandal engulfing Volkswagen is not the first crisis to hit the troubled car marker. In 2005 it was the centre of a sex scandal which rocked Germany. VW's council works chief, Klaus Volkert, received £1.2million in bribes, some of which paid to his Brazilian lover

Bribery: VW orgamised sex parties and prostitutes for German MPs and union bosses. Former personnel manager Klaus-Joachim Gebauer (pictured) admitted his role in the scandal

The latest scandal engulfing the company, that it covered up the real level of carbon emissions being pumped out by its diesel engines, has wiped billions off its share price.

A £5billion compensation fund has been set aside as bosses are braced for the raft of collective compensation claims from customers who have purchased illegal vehicles. And chief executive Martin Winterkorn has resigned, saying he wanted to give the German manufacturer 'a fresh start'. But the latest controversy to engulf VW rakes up painful memories for industry experts as the company's history is blighted by cover-ups, dodgy deals and collusion dating back to 1987.

Back then, the car giant shocked the markets by announcing it was taking a £160million provision to cover losses it incurred as the victim of a foreign exchange fraud - almost halving its profits. That scandal, which led to an international manhunt for the fraudsters, caused VW shares to plunge almost a third and forced the German government to postpone plans to sell a 16 per cent stake in the carmaker. The government had planned to use proceeds from the stake to help finance the nation's budget deficit. After a seven-month search, FBI agents arrested a foreign exchange broker from Frankfurt wanted in connection with the fraud, having tracked him to an apartment in Hollywood.

Rocked: The sex scandal that rocked Germany in 2005 gave an insight into the cut throat business of car manufacturing

Fast forward to 2005 and the car giant found itself at the centre of one of the most extraordinary sex scandals seen in Germany. It centred on the collusion between union bosses and corporate bigwigs to keep the workers at the production lines and the profits rolling in. Back then VW was suffering from high wages, low productivity and increasing competition and wanted to push through harsh staff restructuring plans.
Bosses knew their plans would be rejected if put to workers' representatives and so set aside a £500,000 slush fund to entertain German politicians and union bosses to force them to agree to the reforms. The plan was to weaken the unions' clout with honeytraps - by luring officials into compromising situations. They used company funds to pay for sex parties and prostitutes for powerful union reps and politicians, who were given Viagra to boost sexual performance.

Peter Hartz, Volkswagen's personnel head, paid £1.2million over nine years to the company's works council chief, Klaus Volkert. Volkert used the money to fund lavish parties with prostitutes and luxury hotel stays in Brazil and Lisbon for shop stewards, and disguised the payments as business expenses. Some £280,000 of the money was paid to Volkert's Brazilian lover, Adriana Barros, along with jewellery and furs.
But the plot unravelled in 2005 when the parties came to attention of state prosecutors. In the subsequent court case, Hartz was fined £500,000, but escaped jail by admitting to his part in the affair.

The court heard how he paid illegal bonuses to Volkert because VW's management 'wanted union acceptance to changes of work practice.'
My conduct at the time is incomprehensible to me and contradicts all my personal values. I can only explain it by the general atmosphere at Volkswagen at the time

Hartz's cooperation at the hearing meant his favourite prostitute, a Brazilian named Joselia, was not called as a witness to tell all she knew.
Volkert was jailed for three years for accepting £2.5million in improper bonuses. The slush fund which paid for the sex parties was managed by Klaus-Joachim Gebauer, Volkswagen's chief employee representative.
Gebauer was given a one year jail term suspended for arranging the sex parties. He told the court he had spent £40,000 on escorts for him, Helmut Schuster, personnel manager for the VW-owned Skoda in Prague amongst others.

German MP Hans-Juergen Uhl was implicated in the fallout. He sat on the powerful IG Metall Union at VW in Wolfsburg, the workers' committee and staff reforms required his approval. As such, Uhl attended a number of the orgies put on at the time. At the subsequent trials Uhl was jailed for perjury because he had denied that he was at any of them. He later admitted being present at Sexworld party, a Hanover club, where champagne and prostitutes were laid on for workers' council directors.
He told the court: 'My conduct at the time is incomprehensible to me and contradicts all my personal values. I can only explain it by the general atmosphere at Volkswagen at the time. I simply lost my footing.'

Uhl's confession brought a swift end to what was meant to be a trial lasting five days, involving 13 witnesses, six of them prostitutes.
In the same year, VW was also caught up in a corruption scandal in India when a senior executive promised to build a factory in the Andhra Pradesh state in return for a £1.4m payment.

In 2006 the company was embroiled in a wider auto industry corruption scandal after executives at some carmakers were accused of taking bribes from suppliers. This scandal led to the resignation of the executive chairman of Faurecia, a French automotive components maker, after Bernd Pischetsrieder, VW chief executive at the time, threatened to sever ties with the company.

Ulrich Grillo, president of the association of German industries, BDI, said; 'We strongly criticize any form of manipulation. Any misconduct must be cleared up completely with transparency, openness and speed. 'Made in Germany' stands for excellent products,' he said, adding that German engineering and craftsmanship were 'rightly respected worldwide.'

'Grillo's statement reflects deeper concerns here in Germany that Volkswagen's breach of industry ethics could do lasting damage to the country's reputation as a producer of top-notch goods,' said broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Echoing such worries Thilo Brodtmann, chief executive of the machine builders' association, VDMA, said; 'Every day, thousands of businesses, big and small, prove that they can satisfy customers' as well as regulators' complex demands to a T. We have concerns that VW's misconduct would reflect poorly on the rest of the industry. 'In Germany, there's around a million machine builders alone, who give their all, day in and day out, to defend the good name of the industry. There's no reason to put them under suspicion.' But VW, with its long track record of dodgy behaviour, has probably done just that.
 

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So which models were doctored?

when will we find out?

is it just in the US?
 
wilpert said:
So which models were doctored?

when will we find out?

is it just in the US?

At this stage, any car with the 2.0Tdi lump.

Presumably any car with the same ECU will be affected, I dont know if they have a global ECU profile, or if it differs. The algorithm lurks dormant until it recognizes the US test protocol. Clever stuff...
 
It seems that when it comes to white collar crime, like many other things, while us Europeans do sweet fanny Adam, it's the U.S. that has to do all the heavy lifting and step up to the mark. FIFA comes to mind. Europe was happy to turn a blind eye to the blatant corruption that was evident to the dogs in the street. If you're caught breaking the law, the U.S. don't mess about do they? There could well be jail sentences on the horizon.
Having said that I think VW are safe. The German government (I.e EU Mission Control) won't let them go down and the general public will move on like they always have but some heads may be needed on a platter.
 
I agree VW deserve what they get but feel sorry for the staff that will loose their jobs because of this.

I'm sure their will be other car manufacturers who make diesels who have also bent the rules, the performance figures and emissions are all to similar between different cars to be a co incidence.

I am surprised that people are shocked that diesel is dirtier than expected.
You only have to stand behind one in a garage doing a DPF re gen to realize they are filthy things .

Governments are around Europe have been told for years that diesels are harmful but they haven't done anything as they've trapped themselves with legislation to reduce co2.

As for hybrids they might run for miles on a gallon of petrol but the co2 produced to manufacture them is horrendous relative to most cars and offsets any meaningful savings.

This is bound to end badly for all car users, it gives the green lobby the excuse they needed to ban cars from cities and increase general car taxation on health grounds.
 
I imagine those VW staff that are left, whilst keeping a brave face are secretly fuming.
 
.....the guy turned turkey and helped with the investigation then got
clobbered by the judge. :eek:

As much as he deserved jail time I do feel a tad sorry for the guy.
 

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