VW emissions fraud engineer gets 40 months jail and $200k fine
- Auteur:Ella Cai
- Relâchez le:2017-08-29
The Volkswagen engineer who wrote the code which fooled US auto emission testers has been sentenced to 40 months in jail and a $200,000 fine.
The judge called the crime “a stunning fraud on the American consumer,” adding “this is a very serious and troubling crime against our economic system.”
The judge said he hoped the punishments would deter other automotive industry engineers and executives from similar schemes to deceive regulators and consumers.
VW commented: “It would not be appropriate to discuss personnel matters.”
Another VW employee will be sentenced on December 6th. Seven other VW execs have been charged.
VW has agreed to spend $25 billion to settle US claims and has offered to buy back half a million vehicles after pleading guilty to deceiving regulators from 2006 to 2015.
Liang’s software allowed vehicles with emission levels 40x the US emissions legal limit to deliver readings which passed the standards required by the US emissions testing machines.
The software detected that, although a vehicle’s wheels were turning, it was not actually going forwards or backwards.
When it detected that, it put the vehicle’s engine into low-emission mode for the the period of the test which could be reversed when it was out on the road allowing normal driving engine performance to be resumed.
The engineer remains a VW employee.
The judge called the crime “a stunning fraud on the American consumer,” adding “this is a very serious and troubling crime against our economic system.”
The judge said he hoped the punishments would deter other automotive industry engineers and executives from similar schemes to deceive regulators and consumers.
VW commented: “It would not be appropriate to discuss personnel matters.”
Another VW employee will be sentenced on December 6th. Seven other VW execs have been charged.
VW has agreed to spend $25 billion to settle US claims and has offered to buy back half a million vehicles after pleading guilty to deceiving regulators from 2006 to 2015.
Liang’s software allowed vehicles with emission levels 40x the US emissions legal limit to deliver readings which passed the standards required by the US emissions testing machines.
The software detected that, although a vehicle’s wheels were turning, it was not actually going forwards or backwards.
When it detected that, it put the vehicle’s engine into low-emission mode for the the period of the test which could be reversed when it was out on the road allowing normal driving engine performance to be resumed.
The engineer remains a VW employee.
