It is much more than what had been requested by the prosecution. An ex-engineer of Volkswagen, James Liang, was sentenced Friday by a court in Detroit to 40 months in prison and a $ 200,000 fine for his role in the “dieselgate”, a-t-it is indicated for justice source to the AFP.
After his release, he will also be subjected to a regime of supervised release for two years, and may in addition be expelled to Germany, has told the same source. James Liang, aged 63, had pleaded guilty in September and faced a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine. But as he had chosen to cooperate with the american justice in the investigation, the prosecution had requested three years in prison and a $ 20,000 fine.
In total, seven officers and engineers of VW have been charged in the United States. James Liang, who is the first to be sentenced, had been based as a civil engineer from 1983 to 2008 in Wolfsburg, headquarters of VW in Germany, where he worked in the department in charge of developing the diesel.
He has contributed to the arrest of senior officials
His lawyer, Daniel Nixon, had pointed out that his collaboration had enabled them to indict other leaders of the group automobile German whose Olivier Schmidt. The latter, arrested in the beginning of the year in the United States, has also chosen to plead guilty in August and awaits his sentence which must be pronounced on December 6.
Volkswagen has had to pay some 22 billion in fines to the United States to be equipped with its diesel cars of software designed to circumvent controls, anti-pollution american.
Unmasked by the authorities, thanks to an NGO, the giant with twelve brands (Audi, VW, Porsche…) has recognized the end of 2015 to have equipped 11 million of its cars in the world of software, minimizing the level of real emissions of noxious gases during pollution controls. This scandal has now reemerged in Europe. He has been forced to recall about 600,000 cars in the United States.
(with AFP)
