if the USA ... fail to punish VW and its criminal leaders ... in an exemplary manner By and large the USA has chosen to punish companies by fines. Very rarely

if the USA ... fail to punish VW and its criminal leaders ... in an exemplary manner By and large the USA has chosen to punish companies by fines. Very rarely do we put executives in jail. 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's transgressions are minor compared to Enron's. So it's unlikely that the USA will try to put anyone in jail for them. 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. Even if VW's total cost is "only" $18 billion, I think that's a big enough number that it will get the attention of CEOs and boards all around the world. It's unlikely that any other company will be so brazen in the near future.