VW OFFICIAL GETS 7-YEAR JAIL SENTENCE

Detroit, Dec. 7: A USbased Volkswagen AG executive who oversaw emissions issues was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $400,000 by a judge on Wednesday for his role in a diesel emissions scandal that has cost the German automaker as much as $30 billion.

The prison sentence and fine for the executive, Oliver Schmidt, were the maximum possible under a plea deal in August the German national made with prosecutors after admitting to charges of conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violate clean-air laws.

“It is my opinion that you are a key conspirator in this scheme to defraud the United States,” U.S. District Judge Sean Cox of Detroit told Schmidt in court. “You saw this as your opportunity to shine ... and climb the corporate ladder at VW.”

Schmidt read a written statement in court acknowledging his guilt and broke down when discussing his family’s sacrifices on his behalf since his arrest in January. — Reuters Gold financing company Muthoot Finance expects its big-tickets loans to form 10 per cent of its total loans disbursed by FY19, according to an official here on Thursday.

Addressing the media at the launch of their latest scheme aimed towards the SMEs, deputy general manager Babu John Malayil said, “Currently, only 4 per cent of our loans are bigticket loans. With our latest scheme to avail loans of above `10 lakh, we hope to see a significant rise in the number. We expect it to hit 10 per cent in FY19.”

Mr Malayil added that, “This scheme is aimed at SMEs to meet their capital requirements.”

When asked about the scheme, he said, “Like other schemes, the person will need to pledge gold to avail the loan but due to the size of the loan we’ll be charging interest at 12 per cent.”

However, Muthoot Finance, which currently has 146 tonnes of gold pledged to them, has said auctioning off the pledged gold is the last resort.