A Volkswagen engineer pleaded guilty today in a US court for his role in rigging emissions software on 2.0-liter diesels sold in the USA, marking the first criminal charge in the USA government’s probe into the VW scandal.
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As part of the certification process for each new model year, including model years 2009 through 2016, the co-conspirators continued to falsely and fraudulently certify to EPA and CARB that VW diesel vehicles met US emissions standards and complied with the Clean Air Act, according to the plea agreement.
The engineer, James Liang, who entered his plea in Detroit federal court on Friday, is cooperating with the investigation, increasing pressure on higher-ranking officials of the company.
The company also said it did not believe it had breached the two regulations identified by Jourova – the Consumer Sales and Guarantees Directive and the Unfair Commercial Practises Directive – adding the technical fixes were being carried out entirely at the carmaker’s expense.
Liang and others referred to the defeat device as the “acoustic function”, or “cycle-beating” software, prosecutors said.
Liang and other VW employees developed a complex software system to keep emissions low when a vehicle was undergoing testing to demonstrate environmental compliance, but to allow them to spew higher emissions on the road, the indictment said.
That would allow the company to escape criminal conviction as long as it complies with certain requirements in a deal with the justice department. VW has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to address environmental, state and owner claims in the United States.
Jacob Frenkel, a white-collar defense lawyer in Washington and former federal prosecutor, said the indictment reveals a “sphere of communication” with Liang, and everyone involved knows they’ve been implicated. It is, however, said that his term could be reduced if the U.S. government finds he provided substantial assistance. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 (223,000 euros) fine. So they began work on defeat device software that would cheat on the tests, the indictment says. This could mean more resignations for a company that has already seen its CEO and chief USA executive step down in the wake of the scandal.
In the United States – where the legal and regulatory systems are different – Volkswagen was forced to generously compensate owners.
“As a general rule, extradition treaties are limited to crimes that can be charged in both countries”, he said.
The company’s leader of diesel competence admitted in the agreement that he and co-conspirators falsely stated in meetings that Volkswagen vehicles met USA emission standards all while hiding the existence of the “defeat device”.
Volkswagen is accused of falsifying pollution tests to make vehicles appear cleaner than they were.
The indictment says that in May 2008 Liang transferred from Volkswagen headquarters in Germany to the U.S.to help oversee the launch of the new “clean diesel” models.
The plea agreement provides that he will cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation. VW fraudulently told customers that the update was meant to improve the cars, the government said, when in fact it was meant to keep the cars running in dirtier “defeat” mode on the road.
The discrepancies first came to light in March 2014, when a West Virginia University study raised questions about the real world emissions of some VW cars.
In June, the German carmaker agreed to spend $15.3 billion to get a half million emissions-cheating diesel vehicles off US roads.
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His job title in the USA was “Leader of Diesel Competence”, although he still reported to VW officials in Germany. The emails said that if Gen 1 was tested by the California Air Resources Board “then we’ll have nothing more to laugh about!” In 2008 he moved to VW’s Oxnard, California facility, where he helped diesel engines fitted with the software to be certified.
