VW emissions cheat engineer gets 40 month jail sentence

A engineer at Volkswagen has been sentenced to 40 months in a US federal prison for his role in software implementations designed to cheat US emissions tests.

James Robert Liang, 63, of California pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to defraud the US, commit wire fraud and violate the Clean Air Act.

In connection with his guilty plea, the defendant admitted that he was employed by Volkswagen AG (VW) from 1983 until May 2008, working in its diesel development department in Wolfsburg, Germany. In May 2008, Liang moved to the US to assist in the launch of VW's new "clean diesel" vehicles in the US market. While working at VW's testing facility in Oxnard, California, he held the title of Leader of Diesel Competence.

When Liang and his co-conspirators realised that they could not design a diesel engine that would meet the stricter U.S. emissions standards, they designed and implemented software to recognise whether a vehicle was undergoing standard US emissions testing on a dynamometer, versus being driven on the road under normal driving conditions (the defeat device), in order to cheat US emissions tests.

The US Justice Department said the sentence took into consideration the defendant's cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of the company and others.