VW to pay $4.3 billion in fines under proposed deal in scandal

German automaker Volkswagen said Tuesday that it was in “advanced talks” with United States authorities over a proposed settlement in its diesel emissions scandal under which the company would pay $4.3 billion in criminal and civil fines.

The draft settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Customs and Border Protection would include the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the company’s compliance and control measures for three years.

A company statement Tuesday said that under the proposal, Volkswagen would agree to “a guilty plea” to criminal law provisions.

The draft would need to be approved by Volkswagen’s boards and by U.S. courts. Volkswagen said its management board of top executives, which includes Chief Executive Matthias Mueller, and its board of directors would deal with the issue “in the very short term,” as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

“A final conclusion of the settlement agreement is further subject to the execution by the competent U.S. authorities and to the approval of the competent U.S. courts,” the company said.

The penalties would exceed the amounts Volkswagen has set aside to cover costs from the scandal, but the specific impact on 2016 earnings “cannot be defined at present,” the statement said. Volkswagen already had deducted $19.2 billion from earnings to account for the expected costs of fines, settlements and recalls.

The company has admitted to equipping diesel cars with software that turned up emissions controls when the car was being tested, and turned them down during normal driving, improving engine performance but exceeding emission limits.

Despite the scandal, Volkswagen stands a decent chance of being the world’s top-selling automaker of 2016.

Booming business in China helped Volkswagen’s sales climb to 10.31 million vehicles last year across all its brands, which include Audi, Porsche and Skoda, the company said Tuesday.

That was up 3.8% from 2015, when Volkswagen came in second to Toyota. Neither Toyota nor the other likely contender, General Motors, has reported full-year 2016 sales figures yet.