VW engineer pleads guilty in emissions case, will co-operate
DETROIT — A Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in the company’s emissions cheating scandal, advancing a criminal investigation by agreeing to testify against others.
James Robert Liang, 62, of Newberry Park, California, entered the plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government through wire fraud.
Liang is the first person to enter a plea in the case, and his co-operation is a major breakthrough in the Justice Department’s probe into the scandal. Government documents say others were involved and point to multiple emails in German that likely came from VW employees in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Volkswagen has admitted to installing software on about 500,000 2-litre diesel engines in VW and Audi models in the U.S. that turned pollution controls on during government tests and turned them off while on the road. The Environmental Protection Agency found that the cars emitted up to 40 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide, which can cause human respiratory problems.