Volkswagen engineer pleads guilty in emissions scandal

“Liang knew that VW was cheating by implementing the defeat device and that he and his co-conspirators were considering deceiving EPA in this meeting”, the plea agreement states. James Liang, 62, agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors developing a criminal case against Volkswagen, after he was indicted in Detroit federal court for his role developing the emissions “defeat devices” equipped on more than a half-million cars sold in the United States.

A Volkswagen engineer is expected to help the US pursue its criminal case against the German automaker after pleading guilty to helping create the illegal emissions-cheating device installed on VW diesel cars. About 210,000 owners of Volkswagens with 2-liter diesel engines that cheat on emissions tests have registered to settle with the company under the terms of a June 2016 court agreement.

The plea means prosecutors will charge employees as well as Volkswagen as a company, said David M. Uhlmann, a former chief of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section who is now a University of MI law professor. Liang admitted that he used the defeat device while working on the EA 189 and assisted in making the defeat device work. The team however, quickly realized that they could not design an engine that could meet the rigorous US emissions restrictions.

Volkswagen has admitted to installing software on about 500,000 2-liter diesel engines in VW and Audi models in the USA that turned pollution controls on during government tests and turned them off while on the road.

According to CNN, company spokesperson Jeannine Ginivan said that VW is continuing to cooperate with the United States Justice Dept., but that they can not comment on this indictment.

“This will certainly have an impact on proceedings in Europe”, said Christopher Rother, a Berlin attorney representing European plaintiffs suing Volkswagen in Germany. In August, it reached an additional $1.2 billion settlement to compensate dealers.

As part of the certification process for each new model year, including model years 2009 through 2016, the co-conspirators continued to falsely and fraudulently certify to EPA and CARB that VW diesel vehicles met US emissions standards and complied with the Clean Air Act, according to the plea agreement. The veteran engineer who has worked in the company for over 30 years is scheduled to be sentenced in January and faces up to five years in federal prison. He also could be fined up to $250,000.

The indictment said Liang and others consistently misrepresented the system to federal and state environmental regulators and lied about the issue when regulators probed the discrepancy between the cars’ testing and real-world emissions performance.

As an engineer in Germany, Liang helped develop the engines equipped the defeat devices from the earliest stages, said the indictment. Using the defeat device enabled VW to obtain a certificate from the Environmental Protection Agency needed to sell the cars in the U.S.

James Robert Liang admitted to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, to commit wire fraud and to break the Clean Air Act. The plea by the VW engineer suggests that the Department of Justice is trying to pursue charges against other higher-level executives at the company.