Volkswagen has pleaded guilty to three criminal felony charges and will pay $4.3 billion to settle with even more U.S. federal agencies as part of its ongoing diesel emissions scandal.
The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that VW will pay $2.8 billion in criminal fines resulting from a ?conspiracy to defraud the United States? in violation of the Clean Air Act, obstruction of justice for ?destroying documents related to the scheme? and making false statements about emissions compliance upon importing all 590,000 affected cars into the U.S. Another $1.45 billion settles civil violations with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Finally, VW will pay a $50 million civil fine in violation of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act for underwriting loans and leases for the affected cars. A corporate compliance monitor will oversee certain actions and filings for three years as part of the company’s probation terms. A separate DOJ indictment has warrants out for six VW executives allegedly involved in the emissions cover-up since at least 2007. Oliver Schmidt, formerly general manager of the company’s environmental office in Michigan, was arrested by the FBI on Saturday while visiting Miami.
The other five high-ranking executives are in Germany. They are Heinz-Jakob Neusser, who was head of development for engines and later the entire Volkswagen brand until 2015; Jens Hadler, head of engine d...