No doubt the senior executives at Volkswagen breathed a very deep sigh of relief when the Justice Department announced its civil suit against the company for damages relating to its emissions testing fraud and attendant scandal. The suit, ironically filed in the former auto capital of the world, Detroit, sought damages for installation of the defeat device in approximately 499,000 cars here in the U.S.
The New York Times quoted, Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance in the following statement, “With today’s filing, we take an important step to protect public health by seeking to hold Volkswagen accountable for any unlawful air pollution, setting us on a path to resolution.”
