Volkswagen Emission Scandal: engineer pleads guilty in criminal investigation

An engineer indicted in the U.S. investigations in to the extent of the Volkswagen emission scandal – AKA “dieselgate” – has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud regulators and car owners.

This is reportedly the first criminal charge off the back of the investigations, which has seen lawyers around the world now acting for victims pursuing compensation. Our lawyers are fighting for the rights of thousands of UK victims who have formally retained our services as we lead the fight for justice here in Britain.

We’re pleased with the news of the charges, as we fully expect Volkswagen employees who were involved in the emission scandal to accept any blame rightfully placed upon them. This scandal and subsequent recall has not been caused by accident or by incidental circumstances; Volkswagen and their employees intentionally developed software to cheat emissions testing, and that really is the bottom line of it.

The case was heard in a U.S. District Court in Michigan.

The admission from the engineer will no doubt increase the pressure on the German carmakers to properly compensate their customers who have been misled in to purchasing vehicles without any knowledge that the vehicle was fitted with emission cheating software.

Cooperation with the criminal case

The Volkswagen engineer has reportedly agreed to cooperate with further investigations having entered in to a plea agreement which may result in a reduced sentence in exchange for information. It is still not fully clear as to precisely how the emission scandal was engineered in terms of who were the decision makers, and who was pulling the strings.

There are whispers that some engineers were cornered and felt like they had no choice but to take part in the fraudulent activity. Prosecutors and lawyers have been sifting through stacks of paperwork in efforts to uncover the truth, but the simple reality is that we may actually never know the extent of what was going on.

The engineer in this case may face several years in prison, but is reportedly “remorseful” for his actions; although he has admitted that he knew Volkswagen “did not disclose the defeat device to U.S. regulators.”

Project “US ’07”

Engineers and conspirators involved in the scandal allegedly began creating the supposedly ‘clean diesel’ engine for the U.S. market as part of a project named “US ’07”. This project was designed to allow cars to pass emissions tests by simply cheating the system. Words that have been used to describe the software have been widely reported before in the press, with “acoustic” software being one of the more prominent names used. In addition, the following terms were also allegedly used: “cycle beating;” “switch logic;” and “emissions-tight mode.”

Engineers knew the vehicles couldn’t pass the tests

Investigations have revealed that engineers knew full well they would not be able to pass the emissions tests with their vehicles. An elaborate cover-up was initiated as part of the fraudulent activity involving the development and implementation of the emission cheating software.

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