The DOJ announced today that engineer James Robert Liang pleaded guilty and entered a plea agreement to cooperate with the government’s investigation.
Advertisement
The news came one day after Volkswagen rejected the idea that it may have breached European Union consumer rules over its emissions cheating scandal.
A longtime Volkswagen engineer pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to charges he helped design and implement a software system that enabled the German automaker’s diesel engines to defeat emissions tests.
Liang is being charged in a Detroit court because the fraudulent activity was conducted at an EPA emissions lab in the state.
The engineer is being charged with conspiracy to defraud the USA government to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act, according to The Detroit News.
“Mr. Liang certainly knew enough that the USA government has embraced him as its first and certainly a prominent cooperator”, said Frenkel, who added the Liang likely will get little or no prison time due to his cooperation. So instead, they programmed and installed software that would recognize when the vehicle was being tested for emissions level, and manipulate the Volkswagen car’s emissions accordingly.
According to the plea agreement, employees of VW and its USA subsidiary met subsequently with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board to seek vehicle certification. Liang was charged with conspiracy to defraud the USA government, and violation of the clean air act, among other crimes.
A Volkswagen engineer is expected to help the US pursue its criminal case against the German automaker after pleading guilty to helping create the illegal emissions-cheating device installed on VW diesel cars. The indictment detailed e-mails between Liang and co-workers that initially admitted to cheating in an nearly cavalier manner but then turned desperate after the deception was uncovered. In cases brought against General Motors Co. for ignition problems and Toyota Motor Corp. for uncontrolled acceleration, no high-ranking executives were accused of wrongdoing in the U.S. 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.
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. Jeannine Ginivan, spokeswoman at the German company declined to comment on the indictment.
Laing, who wore a dark suit and tie, mostly responded “yes” or “no” to the judge’s questions at the Friday hearing, but also read a brief statement in which he admitted to the fraud. This video shows him leaving court with his attorney.
Liang, whose name first appeared in a lawsuit against VW filed in New York State in July, allegedly engineered a diesel emissions defeat device for the Volkswagen Jetta powered by the 2.0-liter TDI engine. Within VW, it was referred to as the United States ’07 project. James Liang, 62, agreed to cooperate with U.S. 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. Instead, the plea said, they designed software to recognize when the auto was undergoing a test and turn on emissions controls.
Liang admitted that he and his co-conspirators knew that VW marketed its diesel vehicles to the US public as “clean diesel” and knew that these claims were false.
Volkswagen has engineering offices in Auburn Hills that are responsible for preparing and submitting documents for federal regulators to be able to sell Volkswagens in the U.S. The company dating back to 2008 certified with the EPA and the California Air Resources Board that several Volkswagen vehicles met emissions requirements.
This file photo taken on October 21, 2015 shows employees of German auto maker Volkswagen checking cars at a assembly line of the VW plant in Wolfsburg, central Germany. The software was created to recognize when the cars were being tested on a treadmill-like device called a dynamometer.
Liang, now 62, worked at VW from 1983 until May 2008 in the diesel engine department in Germany. The software then calibrated the engine to run cleaner than it would in real world driving, according to the indictment. They also hid the defeat device’s existence from US regulators during these meetings.
As a first step, VW offered a new “optimized” software update that was supposed to address the high emissions.
Advertisement
According to the plea agreement, employees of VW and its USA subsidiary met with the EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to seek the certifications required to sell each model year of its vehicles to US customers. While working at VW, he waws in the diesel development department.
