Volkswagen and Foreign Policy

Karen De Coster
Sep. 23, 2015

Government Motors executives knowingly kept putting faulty ignition switches on vehicles, playing the numbers game and covering up its con game that killed 120+ people. Then they pocket the US Justice Department and walk away with inconsequential fines and no criminal prosecution.

The Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) will have 3 corporate officers/managers sent to prison for a very long time for a salmonella outbreak, even in spite of shaky evidence that these folks were acting out in a criminal manner.

Volkswagen *increases its investment in Russia* and bypasses the EPA’s politically-motivated, special interest-benefiting mandates, and so the company is currently being threatened with $18B in fines, while that same Justice Department cranks up a criminal probe and the financial markets slaughter 20%+ of the company’s value. Volkswagen is now an object of US foreign policy and Middle East diplomacy.

As dominoes continue to fall -- Germany, France, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Italy are calling for queries into Volkswagen -- the damage to the iconic German company became more clear Tuesday. Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn has apologized and is fighting to keep his job, denying reports in German media that he would be replaced by Matthias MÃ¼ller, the chairman of VW's sister company Porsche. Volkswagen's stock dropped nearly 20 percent Tuesday, a repeat of Monday's slide. Qatar, the oil rich nation that is one of the Volkswagen's largest shareholders, has already lost $5 billion on its investment.