Authorities say 62-year-old James Liang was at the center of the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal, and that he helped design the component of the diesel engine that would trick the EPA on the vehicle’s emissions test.
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The engineer, James Liang, who has been with the company since 1983, agreed to cooperate in the continuing USA investigation, according to his plea agreement filed in federal court in Detroit.
Volkswagen has already agreed to more than $16 billion in separate civil settlements to address environmental, state and owner claims in the United States, Reuters reported. Jeannine Ginivan, spokeswoman at the German company declined to comment on the indictment. About 210,000 owners of Volkswagens with 2-liter diesel engines that cheat on emissions tests have registered to settle with the company under the terms of a June 2016 court agreement.
The veteran engineer who has been employed by the German vehicle firm since 1983 was charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud and violating United States clean air laws, reports Reuters.
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 US emissions standards, according to the plea agreement.
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 US emissions guidelines.
“This will certainly have an impact on proceedings in Europe”, said Christopher Rother, a Berlin attorney representing European plaintiffs suing Volkswagen in Germany.
This is the first time a VW employee has been charged by the U.S. Justice Department in the agency’s inquiry into the carmaker’s use of illegal “defeat device” software to cheat on emissions tests. He faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and/or three years of supervised release as well the possibility of a $250,000 fine, and restitution.
Last year VW admitted cheating on the emissions tests of almost 500,000 diesel vehicles in the U.S and subsequently almost 11 million worldwide. NBC News notes that the question however, remains who orchestrated the deception and how far up the corporate ladder the subterfuge reached.
Note that a 2014 ICCT-commissioned study titled In-Use Emissions Testing of Light-Duty Diesel Vehicles in the United States [PDF] showed that Volkswagen’s “clean diesel” vehicles’ road emissions were up to 40 times the number what was reflected on the dynamometer during the emissions tests. So-called “defeat devices” were installed on approximately 500,000 VW diesel 2.0 liter vehicles that allowed the automaker to manipulate emissions tests. Liang said in court that he knew the automaker did not disclose the device to American regulators. He is also mentioned in a lawsuit as being a developer of devices that aided certain models appear to burn cleaner in emissions tests.
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His trial will be held in January. The plea by the VW engineer suggests that the Department of Justice is trying to pursue charges against other higher-level executives at the company.
