James Liang, 62, agreed to cooperate with USA prosecutors developing a criminal case against Volkswagen, after he was indicted in Detroit federal court for his role developing the emissions “defeat devices” equipped on more than a half-million cars sold in the United States.
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The indictment says that the veteran engineer conspired with current and former workers of the German vehicle firm to mislead the United States government about a defeat device that let the company sell its diesel cars with emissions level higher than the country’s emissions limit allow.
The plea marks the first time an individual has faced sanctions in the sprawling USA investigation into the emissions scandal.
According to Reuters, the current indictment says Liang conspired with both current and former employees of VW to cheat the U.S. government’s emissions tests using a software that U.S. federal regulators have called a “defeat device”.
Liang worked on the defeat devices from November 2006 while at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The scandal blew up after an investigation found that many Volkswagen cars being sold in America had software in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested.
He moved to California in 2008 as Volkswagen ramped up its marketing of its ostensibly “clean diesel” cars with high fuel efficiency in an effort to win greater market share in the U.S. While working at VW’s testing facility in Oxnard, California, he has held the title of Leader of Diesel Competence. He was indicted under seal on June 1, 2016, by a federal grand jury, and the indictment was unsealed today.
Liang, according to the plea, used the cheat software on the 2.0-liter TDI engine and helped make the software work, which the “co-conspirators needed” to win EPA approvals. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine up of to $250,000. Liang admitted that during this time, he and his co-conspirators knew that VW marketed its diesel vehicles to the USA public as “clean diesel” and environmentally-friendly, and promoted the increased fuel economy. Jeannine Ginivan, spokeswoman at the German company declined to comment on the indictment.
Liang’s cooperation could accelerate the United States criminal probe into VW, resulting in a large financial penalty, according to a person familiar with the government’s thinking. That would allow the company to escape criminal conviction as long as it complies with certain requirements in a deal with the justice department.
In April 2015, one Volkswagen employee wrote an email in German to Mr. Liang and other colleagues, saying in part ” we “only just need a plausible explanation” as to why the emissions are still high!”
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The Obama administration’s investigation into the Volkswagen case details how the automaker had been hatching its plan for ten years, starting soon after officials realized it was impossible for the company’s cars to meet reformed USA emissions guidelines. Some analysts have estimated the scandal could cost the company $30 billion or more.
