Can some blame for this deceit be directed towards the company's governance structure?

Topic: "Why should I care about the shareholders, who I see once a year at the general meeting. It is much more important that I care about the employees; I see them everyday." - Attributed to the CEO of Volkswagen in 1983. In 2015, it became apparent that the car maker, Volkswagen, had for years been using illegal software installed in 11 million of its cares worldwide to help the company satisfy emissions standards required by US state testing agencies. When news of this broke, the company faced a global backlash.