Volkswagen pleads guilty to US charges over emissions cheating

 

 

WASHINGTON: -- Volkswagen has agreed to plead guilty to US charges that it cheated on diesel emission tests for a decade.

 

It is also to pay $4.3bn (4bn euros) in criminal and civil penalties in one of the biggest clean air fines on an automaker ever.

 

The fines would have been larger if the company had not already spent $11bn (10.3bn euros) on addressing consumer vehicles.

 

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the the announcement did not mean the US investigation is complete:

 

“We will continue to examine Volkswagen’s attempts to mislead consumers and deceive the government. We will continue to pursue the individuals responsible for orchestrating this damaging conspiracy.”

 

Six of VW’s former executives have been indicted for conspiracy. Five are in Germany and its unclear if they will ever come to the US to face charges. One of the six, Oliver Schmidt, who was a manager in charge of VW’s environmental and engineering office in Michigan was arrested in Florida while on holiday, on Saturday.

 

On Monday he was accused of conspiracy to defraud the US and charged with concealing the cheating from regulators.

 

There are still investor and consumer lawsuits pending in Europe.

 

VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software in hundreds of thousands of US diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner than they were on the road. As many as 11 million vehicles were affected worldwide.

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2017-01-12

Lock up these executive scumbags ?

European car market started already to concentrate on clean technology.

Personal diesel cars will be taxed higher by 2030. Diesel cars will only be used for commercial purposes.

Hybrid, LPG and hydrogen technology will replace in time the diesel market.


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