So, Volkswagen may sue former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, for his alleged involvement in the “dieselgate” scandal, yet many are left wondering: what about compensating their victims?
According to media reports, VW are potentially looking to recover around £88 million in damages from their former executive, which could financially ruin him. Yet all this talk of action and investigations into their own scandal still doesn’t change the fact that there are possibly two million potential UK victims of the scandal who are being refused compensation.
Former exec Winterkorn is already facing charges in the US that could see a jail term of 25 years, but because of Germany’s extradition laws, he won’t face a courtroom in the US unless he voluntarily goes or is caught in another country. We understand that Germany is considering their own criminal proceedings as well.
According to VW, investigations over Winterkorn’s involvement or knowledge of the scandal have been going on for “quite some while”, but with VW still refusing to publish the Jones Day report – the report they commissioned to investigate the scandal – we’re left wondering whether VW are still hiding anything from us.
VW are reportedly still considering whether they will take legal action against their own former chief executive, and we’ll be keeping a very close eye on the developments of this story.
We call for transparency and justice
We’re set to be on the Steering Committee who are at the forefront of the legal action here in the UK; spearheading claims for compensation for victims of the “dieselgate” scandal. Rather than VW considering legal action against their former CEO, we say they should take proper responsibility for the mess they created and be entirely transparent when it comes to the contents of the Jones Day report; and by entirely transparent, we mean disclosing the full contents of the report.
If VW has nothing to hide, why are they refusing to publish the full report?
When it comes to justice, they must compensate UK victims and ensure they pay for the scandal they created. This was no accident; the so-called “defeat devices” were installed in vehicles intentionally, and VW must do the honourable thing and pay for what they have done.
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