Volkswagen has already agreed to spend up to $16bn (£12bn) to address environmental, state and owner claims.
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The so-called “defeat device” changed the performance of the engines accordingly to improve results. He is the first official to be indicted in the U.S.in the now-global scandal involving 11 million diesel cars sold worldwide.
“Almost from the beginning of VW’s process to design its new “clean diesel” vehicles, Liang and his fellow co-conspirators designed these VW diesel vehicles not to meet us emissions standards, but to cheat the testing process”, said prosecutors in Liang’s indictment. This was exposed by a few researchers, who said that thousands of VW cars had a software that helped them emit lesser emissions while undergoing a government-administered emissions test.
Between 1983 and 2008 Liang worked in VW’s diesel development department in Wolfsburg, Germany.
His job title in the US was “Leader of Diesel Competence”, although he still reported to VW officials in Germany.
The indictment said an employee in June wrote, “If the Gen 1 goes onto the roller at the CARB, then we’ll have nothing more to laugh about!” He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Liang reportedly expressed remorse to the court.
According to the DoJ, Liang admitted that from 2009 VW marketed its diesel vehicles to USA consumers as “clean diesel” and environmentally friendly, despite knowing the representations were false. “That’s what makes me guilty”.
Volkswagen said in a statement that it is “continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice”, but couldn’t comment on the indictment.
Liang’s cooperation could accelerate the USA criminal probe into VW, resulting in a large financial penalty, according to a person familiar with the government’s thinking. Deputy Chief Benjamin D. Singer and Trial Attorney Alison L. Anderson of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, Trial Attorney Jennifer L. Blackwell of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Criminal Division Chief Mark Chutkow and Economic Crimes Unit Chief John K. Neal of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of MI are prosecuting the case. Liang, in specific, had teamed up with other employees to reprogram the “defeat devices” on VW’s cars, allowing them to run longer and keep editing emissions figures, despite their age at that time. It still has to reach a similar deal for its cars with 3-liter diesel engines.
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As part of the certification process for each new model year between 2009 and 2016, VW employees continued to claim the diesel vehicles complied with the U.S. Clean Air Act – despite the results of an independent study that showed auto emissions were up to 40 times higher on the road than shown during testing. Some analysts have estimated the scandal could cost the company $30 billion or more.
