USA: VW executive Oliver Schmidt jailed for 7 years

Oliver Schmidt, the former Volkswagen Executive has been sentenced to 7 years in prison by the US court. A Judge in Detroit has also levied a fine of USD 4,00,000 on Schmidt who was who was arrested in January by the F.B.I.

The German was returning to his home country after a family vacation in Florida when he was arrested. Schmidt was the general manager in charge of Volkswagen's environment land engineering office in Michigan. He pleaded guilty to his role on the emissions cover-up and had said that he was 'misused' by the company to bypass the US emission laws.

The officials of the government agencies had argued that Schmidt was in the position of a leadership role and was present when decisions to violate the Clean Air Act were taken. Volkswagen pleaded guilty in March and had agreed to pay billions of dollars in penalties. Schmidt is the highest-ranking employee of Volkswagen to be convicted in this regard. Further, most of the other executives are in Germany and it is unlikely that they will be extradited for trial in US. 

 Source - Guardian