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Volkswagen is demanding compensation for the diesel scandal from former CEO Martin Winterkorn.
What sounds like the ultimate break between the group and its former boss is in reality proof that the Wolfsburg system is intact years after the emissions scandal.
VW is by no means dropping Winterkorn, but is building a golden bridge that the ex-manager is only too happy to cross.
For Volkswagen, the millionfold fraud, for which the public prosecutor of Braunschweig makes Winterkorn jointly responsible, is merely a negligent breach of duty of care.
A tap on the fingers - nothing more.
This will do both parties more good than harm: Winterkorn was well insured against negligent mistakes - very good in fact.
The policy that the Wolfsburg-based carmaker now wants to cover should cover half a billion euros.
With this, the total damage to Dieselgate of over 30 billion euros can by no means be made good, on the other hand it is significantly more money than could be obtained personally from Winterkorn.
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At the same time, the VW supervisory board avoids the accusation that the previous management was not held liable at all.
Winterkorn has the opportunity to get out of it with a painful but manageable financial deductible.
And the whole thing also has a nice signal effect for his upcoming criminal proceedings: After all, his lawyers can now argue that not even the injured ex-employer can see intent at Winterkorn.
The decision of the group is by no means surprising: in the past few years it has been shown time and again that the Volkswagen system and its main owners, the Porsche and Piëch families, are not ready to break with those responsible for Dieselgate.
For far too long the former Audi boss Rupert Stadler was held on desperately and only exchanged when he was in custody.
To this day, Hans Dieter Pötsch, chief financial officer of the Winterkorn era, is chairman of the supervisory board.
The committee that has now decided to hold only Winterkorn and Stadler - or their insurance companies - liable.
A more consistent approach against the former top management would have been part of a real reappraisal of this huge scandal.
It won't come to that.
It is now up to the judiciary, unimpressed by the Wolfsburg system's requirements, to clarify who is responsible for the millions of fraud.