The United States' Justice Department announced the federal indictments of six high-level Volkswagen (VW) employees about an elaborate and wide-ranging scheme to commit fraud and then cover it up. Five of the six executives are in Germany, while one has been arrested and charged in Miami earlier this week. VW is asked to cooperate in a continuing probe, and more employees could be arrested as a result.
According to ABC News, the company agreed to pay a record $4.3 billion penalty. This is the largest ever levied by the government against an automotive manufacturer, surpassing Toyota's $1.2 billion fine in 2014 over safety issues related to unintended acceleration.
According to the Department of Justice, VW plead guilty to participating in conspiracy to defraud the US and American consumers by " lying and misleading the EPA and U.S. customers about whether certain VW, Audi and Porsche branded diesel vehicles" complied with the emission standards of the US. Volkswagen installed software into diesel engines on about 600,000 vehicles which made the engines turn on pollution controls during government tests, and switch them off for real-world driving.
The software, which is called a "defeat device", defeats the emissions controls, therefore improving the engine performance, when in fact, it spews out harmful levels of nitrogen oxide at up to 40 times beyond the legal limit. A VW supervisor is accused of deleting emails and files related to the deceptive device. The government also said that about 40 VW employees were involved in destroying evidence.
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said that companies cannot be put in jail, but "we can hold their employees personally accountable and we can force companies to pay hefty fines." A spokesman for Volkswagen declined to disclose the employment status of the six indicted executives.
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