The company authorised Weideking to take the ultimately unsuccessful strategy of turning Porsche primarily into a stock trading fund investing in VW shares, yes

The company authorised Weideking to take the ultimately unsuccessful strategy of turning Porsche primarily into a stock trading fund investing in VW shares, yes, and paid off his contract as agreed when it failed and brought the company to its knees. The problem is that oversight and accountability is too weak. As CEO he was authorised to take actions which should've set alarm bells ringing with others, without apparent limit, and his contract (much like many others; Fred Goodwin would be a prime UK example) was poorly drafted so as to provide him with limited personal accountability for failure. UBS 'rogue trader' Kweku Adoboli is currently in custody awaiting trial for inflicting a serious loss on his company; Wendling Weideking was paid off handsomely for far worse. Boards need to take their role of executive oversight more seriously.