A Volkswagen Emissions Executive Has Been Arrested

Volkswagen’s former American head of emissions compliance, Oliver Schmidt, was arrested on Saturday in Florida. He is accused by the FBI of playing a central VW’s TDI emissions cheating scandal.

Schmidt, charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, was arrested amid reportedly intense talks between the VW and U.S. regulators, who are trying to agree on a settlement before the Obama administration leaves office.

Schmidt deceived U.S. regulators “by offering reasons for the discrepancy other than the fact that VW was intentionally cheating on U.S. emissions tests,” said FBI Agent Ian Dinsmore in an affidavit.

A complaint against VW was unsealed on Saturday further stated that VW employees made a presentation to VW management in 2015 — before the company admitted to emissions cheating — assuring them that the government was not aware of its TDI defeat device.

“Rather than advocate for the disclosure of the defeat device to U.S. regulators, VW executive management authorized its continued concealment.”

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“In the summer of 2015,” the complaint reads, “Schmidt agreed to travel to the United States to participate in direct conversations with U.S. regulators in which he intended to, and did, deceive and mislead U.S. regulators by offering reasons for the discrepancy other than the fact that VW was intentionally cheating U.S. emissions tests.”

Volkswagen brand chief, Herbert Diess, for his part, says that the VW simply has to accept that VW continues to be investigated. “But these are things that the management board itself has no knowledge of,” said Diess.

Despite the arrest, Jeanine Ginivan, a spokeswoman for VW, said that the automaker is still cooperating with the Department of Justice in its attempt to come to an agreement.

A version of this story originally appeared on VW Vortex

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