A Volkswagen executive has been arrested in Florida and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company's diesel emissions cheating.
According to Reuters, Oliver Schmidt, who was general manager in charge of VW's environmental and engineering office in Michigan, did not enter a plea at an initial appearance in US District Court in Miami and was ordered held pending a hearing next Thursday (12 January) by US magistrate Judge William Turnoff.
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Schmidt, who was shackled and wearing a jail uniform, was charged with fraud and conspiracy in not disclosing a cheating device used to rig US diesel emissions tests from 2006 to the end of 2015.
He was arrested on Saturday in Florida after attempting to return to Germany from a vacation there, the Justice Department told Reuters. Schmidt's lawyer David Massey said Schmidt had learned of the investigation and reached out to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to offer to cooperate. Schmidt then met with FBI agents in London last year, he said.
The arrest and court appearance came as VW nears a US$3bn-plus – and potentially $4bn – settlement with the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency to resolve civil and criminal investigations into the diesel scandal, which sources have told Reuters could be announced as soon as Wednesday. Talks are still under way about some details of the settlements and no deal has been reached, sources said.
An FBI complaint unsealed on Monday against Schmidt said he and other VW employees told executive management about the "existence, purpose and characteristics" of an emissions cheating device in July 2015, and that the executives chose not to immediately disclose it to US regulators.
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By GlobalDataThe FBI complaint accused VW of deliberately misleading regulators about cheating pollution tests in the US but did not charge the company with a crime.
Schmidt and other employees gave a presentation about the "defeat device" on or about 27 July, 2015, more than a month before the automaker disclosed the device to US regulators in September 2015, the complaint said.
The cheating allowed nearly 580,0000 of VW's US diesel vehicles sold since 2009 to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution levels.
"In the presentation, VW employees assured VW executive management that U.S. regulators were not aware of the defeat device," the complaint said, according to the news agency report. "Rather than advocate for disclosure of the defeat device to US regulators, VW executive management authorised its continued concealment."
One slide in the presentation included "Indictment?" if regulators did not approve its diesel software for 2016 models, according to the complaint. The complaint said that in 2006 VW employees realised they would not be able to meet US diesel emissions standard and decided to create cheating software.
Volkswagen told Reuters it could not comment on an ongoing legal matter. Hinrich Woebcken, VW's chief executive of the North America region, told the news agency at the Detroit show on Monday the automaker was "surprised" by the criminal charge.
A US VW employee, James Liang, was charged in September and pleaded guilty to misleading regulators about diesel emissions and agreed to cooperate with the investigation. His sentencing was delayed last week as prosecutors consider charging others, a court filing said.
Separately on Monday, a British law firm launched legal action against VW seeking thousands of pounds of compensation each for UK drivers affected by the emissions scandal, Reuters noted.
In Britain, 1.2m cars are affected and Harcus Sinclair UK, which is being supported by Slater and Gordon, said around 10,000 drivers had already signed up to the legal action before the launch.
