7 yrs. for vW scam exec

A FORMER Volkswagen executive was sentenced to seven years in prison Wednesday and fined $400,000 for covering up a scheme to evade pollution limits on U.S. diesel vehicles.

Oliver Schmidt led VW’s engineering and environmental office in Michigan. He was sentenced for conspiring to defraud the federal government and violating the Clean Air Act. He faced 169 years in prison before he reached a plea deal. Schmidt (photo) agreed to be deported to his native Germany at the end of his sentence.

Schmidt was a “key conspirator” who destroyed documents, misled authorities and failed to disclose secret software that made it seem like Volkswagens were meeting emissions rules, the judge in case said at sentencing. The VWs, marketed as “clean diesel” vehicles, were programmed in a decadelong scheme to trigger certain pollution results during testing, but not during regular road use. “I’m sure, based upon common sense, that you viewed this coverup as an opportunity to shine — to climb the corporate ladder at VW,” Judge Sean Cox said. “Your goal was to impress senior management.” Schmidt, the highest-ranking Volkswagen employee to be convicted for the scheme in the U.S., said, “For the disruption of my life, I only have to blame myself . . . I accept the responsibility for the wrong I committed.” The scandal has cost the car company more than $20 billion in fines since the diesel emissions fraud was revealed in 2015.