First, the US government has no power. Yes, they stole the passport of a VW manager[1], but VW since decided to instantly get all their people out of the US. But practically, since that, they have zero power.<p>Second, the German government is the largest external shareholder of VW[2] – so you can assume that this action was made under acceptance of the government.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.spiegel.de&#x2F;wirtschaft&#x2F;unternehmen&#x2F;sueddeutsche-usa-wollen-manager-von-vw-nicht-ausreisen-lassen-a-1061671.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.spiegel.de&#x2F;wirtschaft&#x2F;unternehmen&#x2F;sueddeutsche-us...</a><p>[2] Well, the largest shareholder of VW is Porsche Group. The largest shareholder of <i>that</i> is VW. It’s complicated. Effectively, most of it belongs to the Porsche&#x2F;Piech family and the German government.