Volkswagen Emission Scandal – VW Executive Jailed for 7 Years

A senior VW executive, Oliver Schmidt has been sentenced to seven years in prison by a US court for his role in the Volkswagen Emission Scandal and he has also been fined with a sum of $400,000. He has been found guilty of concealing software used to evade pollution limits on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles.

Oliver Schmidt, a German International was Volkswagen firm’s emissions compliance manager in Michigan office has pleaded guilty with two charges up his sleeve: conspiracy to defraud the United States to commit wire fraud and to violate the Clean Air Act. He has argued that he was “misused” by VW in its attempts to circumvent US emissions tests.

The sentencing was carried out in the court of Detroit in front of judge Sean Cox who sided with the prosecution. According to the reports, the judge stated- “It is my opinion that you are a key conspirator in this scheme to defraud the United States,” Cox told Schmidt in court. “You saw this as your opportunity to shine … and climb the corporate ladder at VW.”

Oliver oversaw the emissions at VW’s office in Michigan from 2012 to early 2015, met with key California regulators in 2015 but did not disclose the rogue software which allowed the vehicles to falsely pass the emission tests. He also misled the investigators and destroyed the documents.

After pleading guilty, the former VW executive told the court: “For the disruption of my life, I only have to blame myself… I accept the responsibility for the wrong I committed.”

He is the second VW employee to be sentenced to prison in the USA for his role in the scandal after the 40 months sentence of James Liang, VW’s former head of diesel competence. Volkswagen has already agreed to pay $2.8 billion in penalties as well as spending billions more on buying back the vehicles involved.