Does the VW fiasco qualify as a conspiracy?

[Trivial]

Next question being, are other companies doing the same, or similarly nefarious, things?

From where I work, I'd say yes because it can be hidden so easily.

Where I work they've intentionally made it so all parts of a service line only do one thing, and no one has any idea how anyone else in the chain does their job.  So say I found a bunch of servers that were only on for inventory count/billing purposes and had no other reason to be on, I can not be sure if that's really the case or someone in the line is an idiot. 

Idiot is far more likely so I discard the nefarious idea.

*edit* Thought about it more:  I'd say yes to similar nefarious things, no on the hidden easily bit for the level that VW was on.