VW engineer gets jail time
The first Volkswagen employee has been jailed for his involvement in dieselgate.
James Liang, who was head of diesel competence in the US, has been sentenced to 40 months behind bars after pleading guilty to charges relating to VW’s use of emissions cheating devices.
Liang admitted that he tried to hide the presence of the device during early meetings with legislators, saying that he did so to protect his £194,000 salary.
He has also been fined £155,000.
US District Judge Sean Cox said, ‘This is a serious crime and involved a massive fraud upon the American consumer. Cooperation or regret doesn’t excuse your conduct.’
However, the judge added that Laing was not responsible for the VW decision to use cheat devices. To date eight VW executives have been charged with criminal offences, with VW facing fines and fix costs of about £19bn.
