VW scandal: Engineer arrested, naturally, in South Florida

The complaint, dated December 30, accuses Schmidt of conspiring with other Volkswagen executives to mislead US regulators about why their vehicles emitted higher emissions on the road than during tests.

VW executives knew about emissions cheating two months before the scandal broke, but chose not to tell USA regulators, according to court papers, BBC News said.

A settlement could help VW largely move past the scandal, though it still faces lawsuits from US investors and some USA states.

Schmidt faced an initial hearing on Monday in Miami and after that, he will be brought to Detroit to stand trial.

Under pressure from United States authorities, VW admitted in September 2015 to installing “defeat devices” – created to reduce cars’ emissions of harmful nitrogen oxide when the software detected they were undergoing regulatory tests – in 11 million vehicles worldwide. Schmidt, who was the head of VW’s regulatory office from 2014 through March 2016, is scheduled to appear in a federal court on Monday.

Schmidt’s arrest also comes as rumors are circulating that other Volkswagen executives refused to come to this year’s North American International Auto Show, which is taking place this week in Detroit, for fear of being arrested. He also appeared in front of United Kingdom parliamentary committee a year ago to argue that VW’s actions weren’t illegal in Europe. “If we are not honest, everything stays as it is”. Eventually, the company admitted to installing software on engines that allowed them to underreport the produced amount of emissions.

Volkswagen last month agreed to a $300 million settlement with owners of about 80,000 3.0-liter diesel VW, Porsche and Audi vehicles.

The FBI has arrested a VW executive in connection with the diesel scandal, Reuters reports. Previously last October, a VW engineer, James Robert Liang was found guilty of defrauding the government.

The company kept under lock and key its knowledge about the defeat devices and the complaint stats, for fear it would affect its bottom line. The largest, concerning the 2.0L diesels, will set the company back $15 billion.

Any criminal penalty from the government would come on top of a US$14.7 billion ($20.9 billion) USA civil settlement between drivers, regulators and VW that requires the company to fix or buy back about 480,000 of the cars in the United States with 2.0-liter engines cars and pay to promote zero-emissions vehicles. Charges in that case have not been filed yet, however.