<i>if the USA ... fail to punish VW and its criminal leaders ... in an exemplary manner</i><p>By and large the USA has chosen to punish companies by fines. Very rarely do we put executives in jail.<p>There have been a few. E.g. Jeff Skilling is a poster boy for corporate malfeasance, and he wound up being sentenced to 14 years. But Enron was, overall, a cesspool rather than a legitimate company. In the greater scheme of things, VW&#x27;s transgressions are minor compared to Enron&#x27;s. So it&#x27;s unlikely that the USA will try to put anyone in jail for them.<p>But VW has already set aside $18 billion. If we look at what happened to BP (another foreign company, and consequently easier to treat as a whipping boy than a US company), that $18 billion will prove wholly inadequate. VW will be lucky if it only costs them $18 billion for their USA fines, etc. And then everyone else in the world will then pile on.<p>Even if VW&#x27;s total cost is &quot;only&quot; $18 billion, I think that&#x27;s a big enough number that it will get the attention of CEOs and boards all around the world. It&#x27;s unlikely that any other company will be so brazen in the near future.