Bonuses for Volkswagen Executives? No Way! Corporate Crime Shouldn’t Pay

Corporate crime shouldn’t pay. And company executives certainly shouldn’t be given bonuses when their company commits one of the most outrageous environmental crimes in memory.

But that’s exactly what Volkswagen executives are seeking.

News reports say executives at VW – the company reeling from the emissions-cheating scandal – are refusing to forego scheduled bonuses.

Volkswagen has admitted to installing software designed to evade emissions rules. The company deliberately deceived consumers and regulators, consciously poisoning the air with gases that cause respiratory illness and exacerbate climate change.

The fallout from the scandal, executives say, threatens the company’s very existence – yet those same executives want to collect bonuses!

It’s as if the executives at the shipping company that owned the Titantic demanded bonuses a few months after the ocean liner went down.

The decision to award the bonuses will not be formally published until April 28, so there’s still time for VW to get some sense.

Robert Weissman is the president of Public Citizen