Volkswagen has agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties stemming from the German automaker’s efforts to cheat on federal and state emissions tests, the U. S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
That number includes $2.8 billion in criminal penalties as well as $1.5 billion to resolve environmental, customs and financial claims, the agency said. Volkswagen will also plead guilty to three felony counts, will be on probation for three years and will be overseen by a corporate compliance monitor for that time, DOJ said.
About 590,000 diesel vehicles in the U. S. were sold that included a so-called defeat device to make their emissions seem lower than they were on tests mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board.
In a new fallout in the Volkswagen emissions scandal, lawsuits filed by three states claim top executives were involved with creating so-called “…
Six German executives and employees of Volkswagen have also been indicted and charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States: Heinz-Jakob Neusser, 56; Jens Hadler, 50; Richard Dorenkamp, 68; Bernd Gottweis, 69; Oliver Schmidt, 48; and Jürgen Peter, 59.
All are believed to be in Germany except for Schmidt, who was arrested in Miami on Friday and appeared in federal court there on Monday. The U. S. and Germany do not have an extradition agreement.
Schmidt worked as the general manager in charge of VW’s environment and engineering Office, in Auburn Hills, Michigan, from 2012 until February 2015. After that time and through September 2015, he worked directly for Heinz-Jakob Neusser, who was the head of development for the VW brand from July 2013 until September 2015.
Jens Hadler was head of engine development from May 2007 until March 2011. Bernd Gottweis was a supervisor responsible for quality management and product safety from 2003 until December 2014. Jürgen Peter has worked in the quality management and product safety group since 1990. From March 2015 until July 2015, he was one of the liaisons between the regulatory agencies and VW.
Feds prosecuting fewer corporate criminals; income inequality is a major global threat; and incarcerating Manson has cost millions. These headlin…
Richard Dorenkamp was the head of VW’s engine development after-treatment department from 2003 until December 2013. From 2006 to 2013, Dorenkamp led a team of engineers that developed the first diesel engine intended to meet the new, tougher emissions standards in the United States.
The indictment also charges Dorenkamp, Neusser, Schmidt and Peter with Clean Air Act violations. Neusser, Gottweis, Schmidt and Peter also face wire fraud charges.
It is extremely rare for corporate executives to receive criminal charges , even when their company is found to have behaved criminally. White-collar prosecutions in the U. S. have dropped by about a fifth over the past decade.
“When Volkswagen broke the law, EPA stepped in to hold them accountable and address the pollution they caused,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in a statement. “EPA’s fundamental and indispensable role becomes all too clear when companies evade laws that protect our health. The American public depends on a strong and active EPA to deliver clean air protections, and that is exactly what we have done.”

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Timothy Weeks, an Australian teacher at the American University in Kabul and his American colleague Kevin King were seized near the campus in August.
The video, which Weeks said was made on Jan. 1, showed the two men, both bearded, asking their families to put pressure on the U. S. government to help secure their release.
Addressing President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to take office on Jan. 20, Weeks said the Taliban had asked for prisoners held at Bagram air field and at Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul to be exchanged for them.
“They are being held there illegally and the Taliban has asked for them to be released in our exchange. If they are not exchanged for us then we will be killed,” he said.
“Donald Trump sir, please, I ask you, please, this is in your hands, I ask you please to negotiate with the Taliban. If you do not negotiate with them, we will be killed. ”
In September, the Pentagon said U. S. forces mounted a raid to try to rescue two civilian hostages but the men were not at the location targeted.
Kidnapping has been a major problem in Afghanistan for many years. Most victims are Afghans and many kidnappers are criminal gangs seeking ransom money but a number of foreigners have also been abducted for political ends.
Last year, the Taliban released a video showing a U. S. hostage and her Canadian husband abducted in 2012 asking their governments to pressure the Kabul government not to execute Taliban prisoners.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (UPI) — The top ethics official in the U. S. government on Wednesday dismissed President-elect Donald Trump ‘s promise to cede day-to-day control of his businesses to family members as nothing more than a “meaningless” symbolic gesture.
Walter Shaub, chief of the Office of Government Ethics, a watchdog that monitors the federal government, told reporters that Trump’s stated plan does hardly anything to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest he would face in the White House.
“The plan the president has announced doesn’t meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every president in the past four decades has met,” Shaub said at his news conference , calling Trump’s plan “meaningless from a conflicts of interest perspective. ”
“We can’t risk the perception that government leaders would use their official positions for professional profit,” he added.
The president-elect made it clear Wednesday that he won’t give up his ownership stake in the Trump Organization — but rather place managerial control of his holdings with two of his sons.
“My two sons are going to be running the company,” he said. “They are going to be running it in a very professional way. They’re not going to discuss it with me. ”
However, Trump made it clear he would not give up his ownership stake in the Trump Organization.
The possibility of Trump’s business affairs influencing his decisions as commander in-chief has worried many in the public and private sectors.
Trump attorney Sheri Dillon also said the president-elect’s daughter Ivanka, too, will refrain from day-to-day business dealings because she is married to Jared Kushner, one of Trump’s top White House advisers.
Shaub is urging Trump to divest in his businesses, which he says is the best move to address conflict concerns.
“I don’t think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States of America,” he said, adding that divesting would serve as a good example for future presidents and other members of the government.
Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe agreed, called Trump’s plan a “fraudulent runaround. ”
Trump’s team is still in the process of hiring an ethics official to guide them away from potential conflicts of interest.

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President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the US envoy to the world broke with his future boss on a number of key foreign policy issues on Wednesday, denouncing Russian aggression in cyberspace and in Ukraine, talking up sanctions and affirming his belief in climate change.
Rex Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO, at his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an “illegal action” — something Trump hasn’t done — and said he even would have sent the country defensive weapons to use against Moscow.
In a striking exchange Tillerson admitted that he’d only spoken to the President-elect about world affairs in general terms, and that they haven’t yet discussed Russian policy, telling the Senate panel “that has not yet occurred.”
Tillerson also praised the usefulness of sanctions as a deterrent — again, a very different view than his boss — although he cautioned that their use can hurt American businesses. “In diplomacy, it is useful to have a stick that is in your hand so that whether you use it or not, it becomes part of that conversation,” Tillerson said.
And Tillerson took steps in his opening remarks to strike an overall tougher line on Moscow than Trump has to date, saying that “Russia must know that we will be accountable to our commitments and those of our allies, and that Russia must be held to account for its actions.” “Sen. John McCain became aware of the information in December and passed it to FBI Director James Comey that month.”
On climate change, Tillerson told the Senators he believes “the risk of climate change does exist and the consequences of it could be serious enough that actions should be taken.” In contrast, Trump has in the past described climate change as a hoax perpetrated by China to hurt US manufacturers, although he recently acknowledged the possibility that human activity could be a contributing factor.
The Secretary of State nominee admitted that “ultimately the President-elect was elected and I’ll carry out his policies in order to be as successful as possible but I think it is important to note that he has asked and I feel free to express those views.”
Tillerson, who said he hadn’t received any classified briefings on the Russian hacks, said that it’s a “fair assumption” that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the attacks.
For weeks, Trump has consistently denied or played down Moscow’s involvement, although Wednesday, at a press conference, Trump said, “I think it was Russian.”
At the Tillerson hearing, Democrats — and one Republican — came out swinging.
Democrats questioned why in his prepared opening remarks Tillerson didn’t mention Russia’s alleged hacking of US elections, and they hammered his views on human rights, climate change and ExxonMobil’s ties to Russia.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio went after Tillerson about Russia’s violations of human rights and its alleged war crimes in Syria, telling the nominee that he found it “discouraging” when Tillerson wouldn’t put a label on Moscow’s actions in Aleppo.
“You are still not prepared to say that Vladimir Putin and his military have violated the rules of war and have conducted war crimes in Aleppo,” Rubio declared, pointing to information in the public record about civilians being targeted in the Syrian city.
“Those are very, very serious charges to make, and I would want to have much more information before reaching a conclusion,” Tillerson answered.
Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, challenged Tillerson on whether his business experience prepares him to represent the US to the world. “Diplomacy is not the same as deal making,” Menendez said.
He went on to question where Tillerson’s and Trump’s views actually align and asked if the two had discussed US policy toward Russia.
Tillerson said he and Trump had talked about world issues “in a broad construct and in terms of the principles that are going to guide that.” But when Menendez said that he assumed “Russia would be at the top of that considering all of the actions that are taking place,” Tillerson said, “That has not occurred yet, senator.”
“That’s pretty amazing,” Menendez shot back.
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, pointed to Trump’s longstanding refusal to acknowledge the intelligence community’s assessment about Russian hacking and asked Tillerson what he would do about it.
“We need to stand up to that bully in Moscow,” Cardin said.
Cardin said he would be quizzing Tillerson on ExxonMobil’s business deals with Russia, indicating that they “supported directly or indirectly” some of Putin’s more aggressive actions.
“It’s not too great of a distance from Exxon business partnerships to Putin’s slush funds” for disinformation and other activities, Cardin charged.
The former ExxonMobil CEO claims close ties to Putin, having overseen the company’s partnership with a state-owned energy giant there, work that earned him the country’s highest award for non-citizens.
In opening remarks that were interrupted by a shouting protestor, Tillerson tried to strike a balance, saying that “where cooperation with Russia based on common interests is possible, such as reducing the global threat of terrorism, we ought to explore these options.”
“We need an open and frank dialogue with Russia regarding its ambitions, so that we know how to chart our own course,” he said.
But he added that “Russia must know that we will be accountable to our commitments and those of our allies, and that Russia must be held to account for its actions.”
And he validated NATO allies’ concerns about Russian aggression but said that some of the blame lies with the Obama administration.
The US “sent weak or mixed signals with ‘red lines’ that turned into green lights,” Tillerson said. “We did not recognize that Russia does not think like we do.”
Tillerson’s big moment in the spotlight comes as CNN reported Tuesday that US intelligence agencies are investigating reports that Russia collected sensitive and potentially compromising information about Trump’s personal and financial affairs. Trump dismissed those reports as “fake news” at a press conference Wednesday.
The information, from a firm run by a former British intelligence operative, also indicated that throughout the campaign, Trump surrogates were in touch with intermediaries for the Russian government. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, became aware of the information in December and passed it to FBI Director James Comey that month.
Republicans will be key to Tillerson’s ability to get through the Foreign Relations Committee and to the Senate floor, where his nomination needs 51 votes to pass. The committee is controlled by Republicans, who hold 10 of the 19 seats. If all Democrats oppose him and they’re joined by just one Republican, Tillerson could stall there.
The oil man, who had headed the ExxonMobil empire since 2006 until retiring at the end of last year, began his journey to Washington in Texas. He was born and educated there, and spent his adult life inside the company, starting in 1975 as a production engineer after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s never worked anywhere else.

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WASHINGTON (WUSA9) – The verbal beat down by Pres.-elect Donald Trump to CNN reporter Jim Acosta was one of the most talked about topics out of Trump’s news conference Wednesday. And WUSA9 is listening.
We call it Your City, Your Voice. We’re giving people the chance to step into our confessional to say whatever they want as we lead up to the inauguration.
Rebecca Bryant stepped in with one thing on her mind—the heated exchange between the president-elect and Acosta.
“It doesn’t look right. It’s not good for the American President,” Bryant said. “I felt that’s not good leadership for him to yell at reporter to shut up—that’s not good leadership.”
Buzzfeed posted unverified documents that allege Russia has compromising information about Trump. CNN reported the documents exist.
“As far as CNN going out of their way to build it up? It’s a disgrace what they did. It’s a disgrace, and I think they ought to apologize,” Bryant said.
We want to hear your thoughts on Pres.-elect Trump’s exchange with Acosta or whatever else is on your mind as we get closer to welcoming our 45th president. Post on social media using #YourCityYourVoice or comment on our Facebook posts.
(© 2017 WUSA)

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