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Jailed VW Manager Says He Was Coached to Lie about Diesel Cheating
Oliver Schmidt, the Volkswagen AG manager found guilty of violating U.S. emission laws, says his superiors and “high-ranking” company lawyers coached him how to lie about the cheating.
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Oliver Schmidt, the Volkswagen AG manager found guilty of violating U.S. emission laws, says his superiors and “high-ranking” company lawyers coached him how to lie about the cheating.
Schmidt was arrested in January and pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and violating the U.S. Clean Air Act. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday in a federal court in Detroit, where he faces a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
Schmidt says he was given a list of falsified talking points to follow when he met with a California environmental official in 2015 and “regrettably” agreed to do so. In a letter to the judge, Schmidt says he felt “misused by my own company.”
At VW, Schmidt was general manager of VW’s U.S. engineering and environmental office, which handled emission certification testing. VW admitted in 2015 it had for nearly 10 years rigged some 555,000 diesels sold in the U.S. to evade emission limits.
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