VW Executive Schmidt Pleads Guilty in Auto Emissions Scandal
- Compliance official faces up to 7 years in prison, deportation
- Auto company admitted in 2015 it used devices to cheat testing
Members of media film an Audi AG A3 35 TDI emissions certification vehicle, produced by Volkswagen AG, waiting to be tested inside the Transportation Pollution Research Center laboratory, operated by National Institute of Environmental Research in Incheon, South Korea, on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Oliver Schmidt, a Volkswagen AG compliance executive charged in the company’s emissions-cheating scandal, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Detroit to conspiracy and violating the U.S. Clean Air Act.
Schmidt faces up to seven years in prison, said U.S. District Judge Sean Cox, with sentencing scheduled for Dec. 6. Schmidt agreed to be deported after he has completed his sentence, Cox said.