Volkswagen reached a settlement agreement with the united States by a scandal of fraud – Portfolio.co

Volkswagen agreed to plead guilty to fraud and pay additional fines for a total of 4.300 million dollars in the united States to close the criminal proceedings related to the diesel engines handled, the Justice Department announced.

This combination of civil and criminal penalties will allow the German giant to evade a trial and is added to the 17.500 million dollars that has already agreed to shell out to cover the costs of the scandal that was uncovered in September 2015 in the united States.

The total sum exceeds by far the 18,000 millions of dollars provided by the group to cover those expenses.

The company has also acknowledged that he participated in a “conspiracy” to fool their customers and to the us authorities, but also that he did “obstruction of justice” by destroying documents to conceal their actions, said the department in a statement. “The attempts by Volkswagen to circumvent the regulations on emissions and import cars unfairly approved, constitute a flagrant violation of the laws of our country about the environment, the protection of consumers and the financial laws”, pointed out the minister of american Justice, Loretta Lynch.

Unmasked by the authorities, thanks to an NGO, the giant of twelve brands (Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche…) had to admit that she outfitted the 11 million vehicles in the world, including 600,000 in the united States, with a program that minimized the actual level of emissions of polluting gases.

ACCUSATIONS

According to the terms of the agreement announced Wednesday, the group will be put to the test over the next three years, during which you will have to submit to the control of an independent auditor in charge of verifying that, indeed, its practices have changed. Volkswagen regrets deeply the behaviour that has caused the crisis of diesel”, responded the director of the group, Matthias Müller, quoted in a press release.

“we will Continue our efforts to change our way of thinking and working,”. The giant Wolfsburg (Germany) also pledged to “cooperate fully” with the us authorities to sue, if necessary, to the employees and directors of Volkswagen involved in the fraud. This Wednesday, u.s. authorities announced the indictment of five new employees, officers and directors of the company, all residents in Germany, who have just added to those announced on Monday, and the engineer of the group in September, the department said.
“In regard to other individuals (…), the investigations are still ongoing,” said Lynch. This new episode of “dieselgate” takes place in full Detroit auto show (north east), where the German giant launched an operation to re-conquer the u.s. market, focusing on the electric car, and revealing new models.

The world’s consumers do not seem to save no resentment toward the group, and their deliveries were increased in 2016 by 3.8%, reaching the record level of 10.3 million vehicles, according to results published Tuesday.

AFP