A Volkswagen engineer has become the first employee to be indicted and to plead guilty on criminal charges over fraudulent emissions software, according to unsealed court documents.
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Liang pleaded guilty to criminal charges that he conspired to defraud the USA, to commit wire fraud, and to violate the Clean Air Act; a grand jury indicted him three months ago, but that document was sealed until today.
As part of the agreement, Liang will cooperate with the United States in further investigations of the VW Group emissions scandal.
In the plea agreement, it was detailed that in 1983 Liang started working as part of Volkswagen’s department of diesel development in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The VW engineer could now face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
This software – known as a “defeat device” – worked out when a vehicle was being tested and switched on emissions controls, but under normal conditions allowed engines to produce much more pollution. Regulators discovered the devices – which permit the cars to emit up to 40 times more nitrogen oxide than is allowed under federal law – past year. He allegedly led the team of engineers that developed a “defeat device” for the company’s diesel vehicles. The indictment alleges Liang and unnamed co-conspirators resorted to using the cheating software after realising the cars could not both meet consumer expectations for performance and satisfy USA emissions standards. “By his own testimony, Liang didn’t work alone, so there is a strong possibility of other indictments and possibly a conspiracy indictment that could affect a much broader swath of VW engineers and management”, Nerad said.
In one 2007 meeting with government officials in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Liang participated as his co-conspirators misrepresented that VW’s diesel vehicles complied with USA emissions standards, according to the plea agreement.
The German automaker also has to pay governments $2.7 billion for environmental mitigation and spend another $2 billion for research on zero-emissions vehicles. Liang admitted that during these meetings his colleagues misrepresented VW compliance and hid the existence of the defeat device.
As an engineer in Germany, Liang helped develop the engines equipped the defeat devices from the earliest stages, said the indictment.
Under the plea agreement, Liang will cooperate in the ongoing federal investigation.
As vehicles equipped with the cheat software aged, they saw elevated rates of warranty claims related to the emissions control, according to the indictment.
The engineer said he was also involved in a 2014 recall by VW that meant to update the cars’ software and cover up the scheme.
The Justice Department said the conspiracy began in November 2006, involved Jetta, Golf and other vehicles with model years between 2009 and 2015, and continued until the cheating was revealed in September 2015.
The indictment noted multiple email exchanges involving Liang and other Volkswagen employees.
The plea marks the first time an individual has faced sanctions in the sprawling USA investigation into the emissions scandal. The software then calibrated the engine to run cleaner than it would in real world driving, according to the indictment.
Liang is cooperating with the emissions probe, which should put more pressure on higher-level VW officials, according to Bloomberg.
“We must be sure to prevent the authority from testing the Gen 1!” a VW employee emailed in June 2015, referring to the first generation of VW models using the “clean diesel” engines.
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Biesecker and Eric Tucker contributed from Washington. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
