VW News: As the Diesel Emits: A Former Volkswagen Employee Claims He Was Fired For Reporting Data Deletion

[William Maley]

A new wrinkle has appeared in the Volkswagen diesel scandal. Last week, Daniel Donovan filed suit against Volkswagen of America for wrongful termination and breaking the Michigan Whistleblowers' Protection Act after reporting that the company continuing deleting data after the EPA said to stop.

 

On September 18, the EPA filed a violation notice against Volkswagen's diesel vehicles. Part of that notice required Volkswagen to not delete any more data. Donovan alleges in the suit that workers at Volkswagen Group of America's data processing center in Auburn Hills, MI did not stop till September 21st. Donovan told his supervisor about this and tried to stop the deletions. A couple of months later, Donovan was fired.

 

Donovan claims his firing was due to concerns Volkswagen of him reporting this to authorities.

 

"The circumstances of Mr. Donovan's departure were unrelated to the diesel emissions issue. We believe his claim of wrongful termination is without merit," said Volkswagen in a statement to Autoblog.

 

Unfortunately, we don't know what kind of data was deleted. But if these allegations are proven to be true, it doesn't matter what kind of data it was: Volkswagen violated the order and could be facing punishment for it.

 

Source: Courthouse News Service, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Reuters, Autoblog

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[David]

This is going to get far more uglier than VW knows. They are just shooting themselves in the foot over and over and the public will remember. I doubt VW will be more than half it's size before the scandal erupted in another year.

[oldshurst442]

I see Porsche and Audi wanting to separate from VAG if crap like this continues to reproduce...

[David]

Lovely, I see that the Stockholders have now Sued Class Action ShareHolder lawsuit asking for minimum of 3.7 Billion for lost Value due to the deceit by the board and CEO.

 

I wonder if VW will be forced to declare bankruptcy?