The past 30 days have brought interesting changes to the world of anti-corruption enforcement. Of course in the United States there was the Yates Memo, directing prosecutors to seek to indict more individuals in white-collar crimes such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. At the end of the day, however, two developments in Europe may stand out further in the ongoing fight against bribery and corruption than even the Justice Department’s newly found focus on individuals and senior executives.
In the Volkswagen emissions testing scandal, the New York Times reported Monday that German prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the former head of VW, Martin Winterkorn. The investigation into the former CEO “is based on complaints from unidentified people asserting that Mr. Winterkorn should be held responsible for a widening scandal linked to diesel emissions.” It was also reported that VW had installed the now-infamous “defeat devices” in more than 2 million Audi cars sold in Europe, in addition to those previously noted to be sold in the United States.
