WHEN an American policeman pulled over a Volkswagen (vw) Jetta in 2013, he suspected that the array of pipes sticking out of the back of the car and the grey box and portable generator in the vehicle were a sign of something fishy. He was right. The West Virginia University researchers inside the car had nothing to hide. But the tests they were conducting on the exhaust fumes, meant to prove the cleanliness of modern diesel engines, uncovered one of the biggest and boldest frauds in corporate history. The decision by vw, a pillar of Germany's car industry, to fit "defeat devices" and cheat emissions tests in up to urn cars has so far cost the company $21bn in fines and compensation in North America alone.
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