What do Lance Armstrong and Volkswagen have in common? For one thing, both were involved in largest scandals in their respective spheres: Armstrong in cycling, and Volkswagen in car manufacturing. Yet, the similarities go even further. The Man from FCPA was intrigued when he came across a recent New York Times article, reporting on a New York state lawsuit against the German auto manufacturer. It was not the cheating which tied the company to Armstrong, it was the years of very public denials and criticisms of any person or institution which raised questions.
The New York lawsuit alleges that VW began its fraudulent conduct as far back as 2004, in its Audi unit, which was then headed by current VW chief executive Matthias Müller. The scam to deceive both emissions testing and even acoustic testing began at that time. However in 2014, when engineers at West Virginia University published a study raising the emissions-testing issue, the company went into full Lance Armstrong attack mode on several fronts.
