A court in Detroit has sentenced the first VW employee in connection with the German carmaker's diesel emissions-cheating scandal. James Liang was handed a 40-month prison term after pleading guilty to conspiracy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Kappeler
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Volkswagen's longtime engineer James Liang was sentenced to 40 months in prison and a $200,000 (169,000-euro) fine in Detroit Friday after he had confessed to playing a part in the German carmaker's large-scale emissions-cheating scandal.
Judge Sean Cox spoke of "a serious crime" in which Liang had played a key role.
Prosecutors had only sought a jail term of up to three years and a fine of $20,000 for 63-year-old Liang, who had been in the company for 35 years. That was nowhere near the maximum term of seven years and a possible fine of $400,000.
Liang had been cooperating with authorities in the US and pleaded guilty in October to a charge of conspiracy.
Among other things, he provided important information to US Justice Department officials in their investigation of the Wolfsburg-based automaker after the company admitted in September 2015 that it had installed so-called defeat devices in about 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide to manipulate emissions test results in the lab.
Oliver Schmidt, who had held a top position in VW's US emissions compliance team until March 2015, is currently the only other Volkswagen employee to face a verdict in the United States.
The FBI arrested him on January 7 in Miami. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the US and to conspiring to commit wire fraud as well as violating the Clean Air Act. He admitted his role in the emissions-cheating scam to reduce criminal charges against him and reduce the fine that was expected to be slapped on him.
Schmidt will remain jailed until sentencing, which is scheduled for December 6.
New revelations
Also on Friday, a report by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and German public broadcasters NDR and WDR cited an unidentified former VW quality manager, who had told investigators he had informed then-CEO Martin Winterkorn in July 2015 that the carmaker had cheated during emissions tests in the United States.
VW executives have kept saying they did not learn about the scandal until late August 2015.
Questions have lingered over who knew the used defeat devices were illegal, and when they found out. The timing is important, because VW is being sued by investors for holding back market-sensitive information - an allegation the company's board has always denied.
Dieselgate: A timeline
VW's emissions scandal plunged the automaker into its deepest crisis ever. It brought with it everlasting damage to VW's reputation and massive fees and penalties — not to mention compensation claims from car owners.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
The disaster unfolds — September 2015
About two weeks after Volkswagen admitted behind closed doors to US environmental regulators that it had installed cheating software in some 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide, the Environmental Protection Agency shared that information with the public. It was September 18, 2015. The ensuing crisis would eventually take a few unexpected turns.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Spata
The boss must go, long live the boss — September 2015
Volkswagen's then-CEO Martin Winterkorn (above) had little choice but to step down several days after news of the scandal broke. In September 2015, he tendered his resignation, but retained his other posts within the Volkswagen Group. Winterkorn's successor was Matthias Müller. Until taking the reins at VW, Müller had been the chairman at Porsche, a VW subsidiary.
Image: picture-alliance/Sven Simon
Raiding headquarters — October 2015
Regulators in the US weren't the only ones investigating VW. Authorities in Lower Saxony, the German state in which VW is based, were also scrutinizing the company. On October 8 2015, state prosecutors raided VW's headquarters along with several other corporate locations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Hell breaks loose — January 2016
On January 4, 2016, the US government filed a lawsuit against VW in Detroit, accusing the German automaker of fraud and violations of American climate protection regulations. The lawsuit sought up to $46 billion for violations of the Clean Air Act.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Burgi
Quit or forced out? — March 2016
In March 2016, the head of VW in the US, Michael Horn, resigned. In the initial days and weeks after the scandal broke, he was the one US authorities turned to for information. He issued an official apology on behalf of the automaker, asking for the public's forgiveness.
Image: Getty Images/C. Somodevilla
Settlement — October 2016
On October 25 2016, a US judge approved a final settlement that would have VW pay $15.3 billion. In addition, affected cars would be retrofitted with better, non-deceptive hardware and software, or else VW would buy them back completely from customers.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
Imitators — July 2017
When dieselgate first emerged in 2015, analysts said it was likely other car makers were also cheating tests. But it wasn't until 2017 that other companies were targeted in probes. In July, German authorities launched investigations into luxury car makers Porsche and Daimler for allegedly cheating emissions tests. Others, such as Audi and Chrysler, have also been hit by similar allegations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Kraufmann
Public still supportive — December 2017
Despite dieselgate, VW has managed to keep the emissions scandal from utterly tarnishing its image. According to several polls, between 55 to 67 percent of Germans continue to trust the automaker. In the US, polls show that roughly 50 percent still believe the German company produces worthwhile vehicles.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Klose
Fuming over monkeys — January 2018
In late January, however, VW suffered another heavy blow over reports that the company experimented on monkeys and made the animals inhale diesel fumes. To make matters worse, a separate experiment that had humans inhale relatively harmless nitrogen dioxide was revealed at the same time. Some media wrongly interpreted this to mean humans were also inhaling toxic fumes.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Gentsch
Canadian court demands millions — January 2020
Years after the scandal that caused Volkswagen to pay CAN$2.4 billion (US$1.83 billion), a court in Toronto order a further fine of CAN$196.5 million. Volkswagen pleaded guilty of violating in environmental laws. Prosecutor Tom Lemon noted that the fine was "26 times the highest fine ever for a Canadian environmental offence."
