VW Engineer Sentenced to 40-Month Prison Term in Diesel Case
A federal judge in Detroit sentenced former engineer James Liang to 40 months in prison for his role in Volkswagen AG’s multiyear scheme to sell diesel cars that generated more pollution than U.S. clean air rules allowed, Reuters is reporting.
The sentence calls for Liang to pay a $200,000 fine, 10 times the amount sought by federal prosecutors. The sentencing judge said he hoped the prison sentence and fine would deter other auto industry engineers and executives from similar schemes to deceive regulators and consumers, write David Shepardson and Joseph White.
LProsecutors said Liang was a “pivotal figure” in designing the systems used to make Volkswagen diesels appear to comply with U.S. pollution standards, when instead they could emit up to 40 times the allowed levels of smog-forming compounds in normal driving, according to the report.
