Jailed VW Exec Denied Bail in U.S.

A U.S. District Court judge in Detroit has ordered that Oliver Schmidt, a Volkswagen AG executive implicated in VW’s diesel emission cheating scandal, be held without bail pending trial.

The judge ruled Oliver Schmidt is a flight risk. On Wednesday the U.S. Dept. of Justice indicted five other current or former VW executives, all of them in Germany, on similar charges. They aren’t likely to be extradited to the U.S. for prosecution.

Schmidt, 48, has headed the carmaker’s U.S. certification office. The Justice Dept. says he faces 11 felony counts and a potential penalty of 169 years in prison. Schmidt is charged with developing methods to trick diesel engine emission tests and conspiring to hide the fact from regulators.

The court ruling came two days after VW agreed to plead guilty to cheating and pay $4.3 billion in civil and criminal fines. Court documents say VW managers in the U.S. had deleted emails, destroyed documents and prepared deceptive “scripts” for employees to use to evade regulatory queries.

VW has so far committed pay as much as $23.4 billion in fines and restitution for illegally rigging some 555,000 4- and 6-cylinder diesels in the U.S. The company also is updating 8.5 million such engines in Europe and has admitted selling more than 1 million more in other markets.