1. US engineering licensing is more than title protection, it is backed by education, testing, and work experience requirements.
2. Suzuki closed the deal to buy out Volkswagen's stake amid claims that Volkswagen was withholding information that effected their partnership in regard to fuel efficient technology, immediately [for some definition of "immediately"] before the revelations in regard to the TDD practices for TDI software: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34275917
There's a matryoshka of foundations and policy groups behind the research funding for the project that uncovered the software design. VW has been in and out of the US diesel car market with every change in the price of gasoline since the first diesel Rabbits in the 1970's when famously, they had to remove the assertion that diesel fuel was less expensive than gasoline from their television commercials.
This way, Volkswagen Passenger Cars [a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Group] does not have to negotiate with its US car dealers regarding a lineup change that removes high profit options and models that bring customers onto the lot who often drive off with some other VW instead of a TDI. If history is a guide, with gasoline down around $2.00/gallon it won't be long until Americans lose most of their rather limited interest in diesels.
The worst case fine of $16 billion is highly unlikely and even were such a fine politically feasible in the US it almost certainly wouldn't send Volkswagen AG under.
The timing is no more likely to be accidental than the way in which the software is configured. The study was completed in 2013.