Volkswagen senior manager Oliver Schmidt is accused of following ‘script of deception’ for the emission cheating software equipped diesel cars
Volkswagen is facing several lawsuits across the world because of the Dieselgate. In one such lawsuit in US, prosecutors are seeking a seven year prison sentence for a senior manager of the company named Oliver Schmidt. He has been accused of following a ‘script of deception’ for the infamous emission cheating software equipped diesel cars in US.
A Detroit federal court will announce the sentence on Wednesday. Schmidt led Volkswagen’s engineering and environmental office in Michigan from 2012 to early 2015. However, the defence lawyers say his sentence should not exceed 40 months in prison, as he’s less culpable than the others. Schmidt has been in custody for nearly one year already.
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In his own defence, the Volkswagen executive has written to federal judge to say that he feels misused by the German auto manufacturer. Speaking about the scam, Dieselgate has been one of the biggest automotive scandals of all time in the history of automobiles in world. In USA along more than 600,000 diesel vehicles were affected by this scam. These cars were fitted with an emission cheating software capable of hiding the actual emission data during lab tests.
Not only in USA, after the scam came under light, Volkswagen was found to be cheating the customers in several other countries around the world. In US, the company was forced to adopt a compensation and repair program, while it denied to take such measure in other countries. In South Korea, authorities revoked the registration of several Dieselgate affected vehicles and slapped hefty amount of fine on the brand.
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Not only Volkswagen models, but several Audi, Skoda and Porsche vehicles too were found equipped with the same emission cheating software. In India too, Volkswagen diesel engine powered cars were found emitting much higher particles than the permitted level. The company recalled those cars to fix the issue in the country.