According to the documents, Liang was on the team that developed the EA 189 2.0-liter diesel at the center of VW’s emissions scandal.
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“Volkswagen is continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice”.
Liang pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud against US regulators and Volkswagen customers, and to violate the Clean Air Act.
The U.S. Justice Department said a Volkswagen engineer has been charged as part of its criminal probe into the German automaker’s diesel emissions scandal.
In September 2015, Volkswagen admitted to installing the “defeat device” on almost a half-million vehicles with 2.0-liter diesel engines. Regulators have said that in normal driving they vehicles emitted up to 40 times more smog-causing nitrogen oxide than the legal limit.
Liang, who began work for VW in 1983 in Germany, and also worked in the USA, was indicted in June on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another count of violating the Clean Air Act.
A Volkswagen engineer was indicted in Detroit federal court Friday and pleaded guilty for his role in developing an emissions-cheating device installed on a half-million diesel cars sold in the United States.
Liang pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge before Judge Sean Cox.
Liang is to be sentenced January 11, 2017.
As part of the plea deal, Liang faces a mutually agreed-upon sentencing guideline that sets a maximum of five years in prison, according to court records.
Volkswagen has already had to pay $10 billion to either buy back the cheating diesel vehicles, or to fix them. This video shows him leaving court with his attorney. 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. Within VW, it was referred to as the USA ’07 project.
According to the indictment, Liang worked in Germany for Volkswagen from 1983 to May 2008 and was part of an engineering team that developed the diesel engine created to meet new, tougher emissions standards.
Liang worked on the defeat devices from November 2006 while at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.
According to the indictment, the co-conspirators included “current and former VW employees and others”. In fact, the update was to allow the cheat system to more easily detect when the vehicle was being tested, using the angle of the steering wheel.
Volkswagen has admitted that its cars contained the illegal software.
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“We must be sure to prevent the authority from testing the Gen 1”, the indictment said an employee wrote in German. He and the co-conspirators also knew that the company’s “clean diesel” promotional claims were false, the Justice Department said.
