Volkswagen pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in a brazen scheme to get around U.S. pollution rules on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles by using software to suppress emissions of nitrogen oxide during tests.
The German automaker has already agreed to pay $4.3bn in civil and criminal penalties – the largest ever levied by the U.S. government against an automaker -although VW’s total cost of the scandal has been pegged at about $21bn, including a pledge to repair or buy back vehicles.
As recently as 20 February, the company’s executives insisted they had ‘misled nobody’ in testimony before the British House of Commons’ transport select committee.
Even after that admission, company employees were busy deleting computer files and other evidence, VW’s general counsel Manfred Doss acknowledged to U.S. district judge Sean Cox.
Summing up the scandal, assistant U.S. attorney John Neal said it was a ‘calculated offense’, not a ‘momentary lapse of judgment’.
This post was published at The Guardian
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