FBI Nabs VW Top Manager In Emission Scandal
The Volkswagen emission scandal is entering a new stage as the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) arrested the German automaker's former top manager on Saturday for trying to defraud the U.S regulator in the emission test.
Oliver Schmidt, who was once in charge of ensuring that VW cars' engines meet the U.S emission standard from 2012 to 2015, was arrested at Miami International Airport while he was about to return home to Germany after having a holiday. He is suspected of intentionally trying to cheat the U.S emission test by installing illegal software on millions of VW cars, as reported by WSJ.
Volkswagen declined to give comments on the arrest of its former top manager. Schmidt himself is the second VW employee to be nabbed as an investigation effort. Previously last October, a VW engineer, James Robert Liang was found guilty of defrauding the government. So far he is cooperative with the investigation.
Schmidt faced an initial hearing on Monday in Miami and after that, he will be brought to Detroit to stand trial.
The German car manufacturer admitted installing illegal device (which is so-called "cheat device") on millions of diesel-powered vehicles sold in the U.S and worldwide to rig the emission test. As a legal consequence, VW had to pay up to $14.7 billion for the proposed settlement, making it one of the largest consumer-class action compensations paid in the States, according to NewYorkTimes.
The emission scandal stemmed when in September 2015 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that VW cars sold in the U.S were equipped with a "cheat device" that detects the time when the test is performed, then changes the performance to get better results.
Meanwhile, 10,000 VW car owners in the UK are planning to file a lawsuit against the German auto giant. They are demanding for the compensation following the emission scandal.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com