Volkswagen Official found guilty, sentenced to 7 years of prison in the biggest Dieselgate
A previous high-ranking Volkswagen employee was pleading guilty on Friday in connection to his role in cheating federal air emission standards. Oliver Schmidt of German descent led the US Volkswagen Environmental Engineering Office, who pleaded guilty to four out of a total of eleven charges against him.
The prosecutors for the case say that Schmidt is a key figure in the International “Dieselgate” scandal, which made Volkswagen lose over $25 billion in the US alone.
Schmidt is known to have participated in the Volkswagen Dieselgate fraud which prioritized the corporate sales at the cost of emission testing and trust of millions of American buyers. Schmidt was not the only one involved. Other officials of Volkswagen are said to be involved as well in this greatest emission scandal. They are all going to be held accountable for the actions by the Department of Justice sooner or later.
Schmidt pleaded guilty to various charges of conspiracy to defraud US, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act, and also actually violating it
Now, he is to face upto 7 years in prison and has to pay a fine of upto $400,000. In his plea however, he admitted the use of softwares in testing the Volkswagen diesel vehicles which allowed emission cheating in 2015, and also working with various other officials and executives to avoid the disclosure of information.
While travelling to the US in January, Schmidt was arrested. Soon after he was arrested, Volkswagen issued a statement saying that they are going to continue cooperating with investigations led by the Department of Justice in connection with the conduct of various individuals. However, they did not really issue a comment on the arrest of Schmidt.
Apart from Schmidt, a handful of other Volkswagen executives are also charged with similar allegations, however since some live in Germany, they would have to be extradited in order to be arrested.
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