Skip to main content

Former Senior VW Exec Arrested in Florida

Volkswagen’s former American head of emissions compliance, Oliver Schmidt, was arrested on Saturday in Florida. He is accused by the FBI of playing a central VW’s TDI emissions cheating scandal.

Schmidt, charged of conspiracy to defraud the United States, was arrested amid reportedly intense talks between the VW and US regulators, who are trying to agree on a settlement before the Obama administration leaves office.

Schmidt deceived US regulators “by offering reasons for the discrepancy other than the fact that VW was intentionally cheating on US emissions tests,” said FBI Agent Ian Dinsmore in an affidavit.

A complaint against VW unsealed on Saturday further stated that VW employees made a presentation to VW management in 2015—before the company admitted to emissions cheating—assuring them that the government was not aware of its TDI defeat device.

“Rather than advocate for the disclosure of the defeat device to US regulators, VW executive management authorized its continued concealment.”

“In the summer of 2015,” the complaint reads, “Schmidt agreed to travel to the United States to participate in direct conversations with US regulators in which he intended to, and did, deceive and mislead US regulators by offering reasons for the discrepancy other than the fact that VW was intentionally cheating US emissions tests.”

Volkswagen brand chief, Herbert Diess, for his part, says that the VW simply has to accept that VW continues to be investigated. “But these are things that the management board itself has no knowledge of,” said Diess.

Despite the arrest, Jeanine Ginivan, a spokeswoman for VW, said that the automaker is still cooperating with the Department of Justice in its attempt to come to an agreement.

[source: Automotive News]

The post Former Senior VW Exec Arrested in Florida appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2jvJM43
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more