The company got away with the scheme for seven years. Germany and South Korea are conducting separate criminal probes of the company.
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This file photo taken on October 21, 2015 shows employees of German vehicle maker Volkswagen checking cars at a assembly line of the VW plant in Wolfsburg, central Germany.
James Robert Liang, who headed diesel competence at VW until June, pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding the federal government to commit wire fraud and to violate the Clean Air Act, the Detroit News reported on Friday.
Tests commissioned by a nonprofit organization in 2014 found that certain Volkswagen models with diesel engines emitted more than the allowable limit of pollutants.
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. The software detected when the cars were being tested in a lab so that they could pass emissions tests, but once the cars hit real-world conditions, the software circumvented the emissions control system to spew large amounts of nitrogen oxide (NOx) into the atmosphere.
As part of the certification process for each new model year between 2009 and 2016, VW employees continued to claim the diesel vehicles complied with the U.S. Clean Air Act – despite the results of an independent study that showed auto emissions were up to 40 times higher on the road than shown during testing.
Although VW has settled numerous civil claims against it, it and its employees are still facing possible criminal prosecution, and now that he has agreed to cooperate, Liang is seen as a key witness in future legal actions. But prosecutors say that Liang and his VW colleagues still conspired to hide the existence of the defeat devices.
According to court papers, Liang – who has worked for VW since 1983, first in Germany, then in the United States from 2008 – was part of the team that developed diesel engines.
Liang and VW personnel also concealed the cheat software from CARB in a meeting just days later in El Monte, Calif., the indictment said.
The U.S. Justice Department sued Volkswagen in early January 2016 for cheating on emission standards tests. Audi’s head of sales and marketing, .
Mr. Liang moved to the USA from Germany in May 2008 to help Volkswagen launch its “clean diesel” vehicles in the US and now lives in Newbury Park, Calif., the Justice Department said. Ouch. The automaker is also on the hook for $2.7 billion in environmental mitigation and $2 billion for research on zero-emissions vehicles.
In 2008, Liang moved to the United States to help win regulatory approval of the diesel engines. His involvement raises the possibility that criminal charges may be brought against other employees at the German carmaker.
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That complaint alleged the diesel engines had been installed with illegal emissions defeat devices, harming the environment. During this time, Volkswagen continued to advertise its vehicles in the U.S.as “clean diesel” and “environmentally friendly”.
