Recall that VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech resigned earlier this year http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/25/uk-volkswagen-ceo-c...

The board was quoted: "The members of the steering committee came to a consensus that, in the light of the past weeks, the mutual trust necessary for successful cooperation was no longer there"

What likely happened was that the EPA filed suit against VW in April, and in uncovering the evidence needed to support the suit, VW chair Ferdinand knew that he needed to go in order to let VW continue to be a company. Or, Ferdinand could have been the ethical one and blew the whistle.

Either way, let out the stink. Corporations aren't nearly the kind of flawless entities you think they are.

Companies, at the time when "company" was still being defined, used to do anything to exploit people and kill the environment just so their owners got a return on investment.

Only through the past 100 years of laws, regulations, and cultural refinement have corporations overtly stopped so many abuses of power. Some of the refinement is purely psychological manipulation as well ("Clean Coal!") and companies are still doing awful things to individuals, societies, and the world at large.

Our current generation is blind to many of these abuses because we grew up inside the bubble of "friendly companies." Friendly companies know they have to maintain their image. Friendly companies know they must hide their evil deeds from law/regulation because public relations now matters more than beating people with sticks to increase their productive output (because companies are immortal after all, you can't have the public turning on you).

Here, they got caught, so they were being stupid.

You don't expect big, successful companies to be stupid (after all, they spend a ton of money to get the best CEOs they can).