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A comment on VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging. Parent comment

Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by bluGill on Monday April 15, 2019 @04:09PM (#19668457)
The German government owns 25% of VW. It is reasonable to suggest they wouldn't want to do a real investigation and bring charges as doing so directly hurts their best interest. It is even reasonable to suggest that the immediate investigations would have been called off if the German government felt they could get away with it, but public pressure has forced this.

Of course reasonable doesn't mean it is the truth. I have no idea what the truth is, but the fears are reasonable.

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Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by pacificmint on Monday April 15, 2019 @04:31PM (#19668648)
> The German government owns 25% of VW.

That’s not quite correct. The shares are owned by the state of Niedersachsen, not the federal government. And they don’t own 25%. They own 11.8%, though they have 20% of the voting rights.

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Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by bluGill on Monday April 15, 2019 @05:04PM (#19668905)
I stand corrected.
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Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by Tomte on Monday April 15, 2019 @04:17PM (#19668524)
Sure, German prosecutors regularly get dissuaded from investigating a crime, because the government said so.

Oh, and public pressure just made the politicians stop. On the other hand public pressure can never stop copyright reform because politicians clearly don't care about the voters.

Maybe you should readjust your mental image of Germany.

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Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by bluGill on Monday April 15, 2019 @05:07PM (#19668935)
Maybe you need to readjust your image of what happens. If it isn't for the vigilance of the people all of the above can happen. They happen in other countries. Corruption of those in powers is a constant in the world, Germany is doing okay now, but it just takes one blink and things can go bad - as they have in many other countries throughout history.
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Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by StreamBright on Tuesday April 16, 2019 @03:14AM (#19671721)
Yep, politics is the key contribution to our intellectual dark ages.
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Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by TomTomXC on Tuesday April 16, 2019 @03:52AM (#19671879)
German prosecutors are not independent but have to follow the authority of the ministry of justice. So in principle, politicians can stop the prosecutors. They would rarely do so as that would be the bigger scandal in the end.
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Re:VW’s Former CEO Charged in Germany Over Diesel Rigging by mensetmanusman on Monday April 15, 2019 @05:13PM (#19668977)
Analogous to Samsung’s relationship with SK and the feet dragging over reproductive health hazards that went unreported in certain photoresists banned in the west.
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