German authorities on Monday detained the chief executive of Volkswagen’s Audi division, Rupert Stadler, as part of a probe into manipulation of emissions controls. The…
German authorities on Monday detained the chief executive of Volkswagen’s Audi division, Rupert Stadler, as part of a probe into manipulation of emissions controls.
The move follows a search last week of Stadler’s private residence, ordered by Munich prosecutors investigating the manager on suspicion of fraud and indirect improprieties with documents.
“Audi CEO Rupert Stadler was provisionally arrested this morning,” the company said. It said shortly afterward that a judge had ordered him kept in custody pending possible charges at prosecutors’ request.
The company said that it couldn’t comment further due to the ongoing investigation but stressed that “the presumption of innocence remains in place for Mr. Stadler.”
German news agency Dpa reported that prosecutors decided to seek Stadler’s arrest due to fears he might try to evade justice. A former head of Audi’s engine development unit is already in investigative detention.
Microsoft scrubbed an online reference to its work for the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the agency faces criticism for its role in separating families at the U. S.-Mexican border.
On Jan. 24, Tom Keane, a Microsoft executive, wrote a blog post about new contracts with the U. S. Air Force and ICE for the company’s Azure cloud-computing service. Keane touted Azure’s ability to help the agency handle “sensitive unclassified data” and use tools such as facial recognition and identification. “The agency is currently implementing transformative technologies for homeland security and public safety, and we’re proud to support this work with our mission-critical cloud,” Keane wrote in the post.
As of Monday morning, the portion of the post mentioning ICE was missing. The earlier, full version of the post was accessed via the Wayback Machine, a historical record of websites maintained by the Internet Archive. On Monday, Bloomberg News asked Microsoft about the work, and the removal of that section of the blog. Soon after, it was back online.
“An employee edited the blog after seeing commentary in social media. This was a mistake and as soon as it was noticed the blog was reverted to previous language,” a Microsoft spokesman said.
Over the weekend, several lawmakers and human rights organizations blasted the White House policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. Tech Workers Coalition, an advocacy group, wrote on Twitter that Microsoft employees should decide whether they will “be complicit” in the administration’s immigration policies. Some other tech executives weighed in, too.
Microsoft currently has $19.14 million in active contracts with ICE, according to Bloomberg Government data. Cloud-computing and software rivals, including Amazon.com, Google and IBM, regularly compete for similar government work. Some of these other companies have been criticized for such activity — in particular Google and a contract with the Pentagon.
Square shares hit their highest price ever after New York granted the company a virtual-currency license, letting customers in the state buy and sell bitcoin.
CEO Jack Dorsey said this year that the company would introduce bitcoin trading to almost all users of Square Cash, which allows people to transfer money to friends and family. Bitcoin trading has helped fuel growth for the app, which had more than 7 million monthly active customers in December. The New York State Department of Financial Services said Monday it had approved a virtual currency license for the company.
Shares climbed 2.7 percent to $66.20 Monday. The stock has surged more than 80 percent since the start of the year.
Former Mexico President Vicente Fox, who calls himself a soldier in the global campaign to legalize marijuana, is joining the board of directors of cannabis publication High Times to advance his agenda.
Fox foresees a day when a robust legal marketplace will produce new jobs and medicines while sharply reducing cartel violence in his home country.
Speaking with the Associated Press about his views on cannabis and his new appointment, Fox says he also sees pot being part of the North American Free Trade Agreement among Mexico, Canada and the U. S., where some 30 states are embracing legalized marijuana in some form.
Some Amazon investors are siding with privacy and civil rights advocates who are urging the tech giant to halt a powerful face recognition tool used by police.
The American Civil Liberties Union is spearheading the effort against Amazon’s Rekognition product, delivering to its Seattle headquarters Monday a petition with 152,000 signatures telling the company to “cancel this order.”
They’re asking Amazon to stop marketing Rekognition to government agencies because of privacy issues they say can be used to discriminate against minorities.
A group of 19 investment managing companies including Harrington Investments, Inc. and Walden Asset Management also sounded the alarm on the tool, which they say could open the company up to lawsuits.
Chronicle News Services
