There needs to be law enforcement against the company itself. Penalties should take away the same proportion of income as they would be for a median citizen. If

There needs to be law enforcement against the company itself. Penalties should take away the same proportion of income as they would be for a median citizen. If a crime is severe enough for a person to do 1 year in prison for, that's about 2% of their lifetime income taken from them plus loss of freedom. A crime of comparable severity should cost a company 2% in perpetuity. If they are outcompeted or forced into restructuring so be it. The threat of non-negligible financial consequences is the only thing that will compel change. The individual low level employees are about as culpable for the emissions cheating as the muscle cells of a serial killer are for murdering someone. They hold no meaningful decision making power within the organization and operate according to the local incentive structure. The executives responsible for shaping the incentive structure are the ones who should be individually penalized. Market forces would help with this if illegal practices were appropriately costly.