Photo: Volkswagen
The Judge of the District Court in Detroit has decided that Oliver Schmidt, a Volkswagen executive who was arrested in early January 2017, will stay behind bars because he is “a flight risk.”
His attorney entered non-guilty pleas on his behalf, but that did not change the ruling one bit. Mr. Schmidt faces 11 felony counts in the USA, and all of them are related to Volkswagen’s emissions scandal.
If the maximum sentence would be given for all of those charges, he could face up to 169 years in federal prison, but that sentence is not likely.
Schmidt’s attorney requested the judge to allow Schmidt to access his prescription glasses, along with his medication. Transfer to another facility was petitioned, but the latter was not under the magistrate’s authority.
The Volkswagen executive was brought to court in the red jumpsuit assigned to prisoners, and he was shackled at the wrists and ankles, Automotive News notes.
Oliver Schmidt was Volkswagen’s responsible for overseeing U.S. emissions and compliance, and he was also the person that sought certification for the TDI engines that were later caught using a “defeat device.”
From 2012 to 2015, he was Volkswagen’s lead executive for the Engineering and Environmental Office, which led investigators to believe that he was familiar with the existence of the software, and also involved in the cover-up of its use.
Even if he did not know about the cheat, he found out about the “dirty diesel” discovered after the West Virginia University performed an independent test in 2014 using a Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI. The examination led to the discovery of VW’s cheating scheme, which was admitted in September 2015.
Seven current and former executives from Volkswagen are charged in the ongoing case in the USA, but five of them are in Germany with no extradition in sight.
Schmidt was detained at the Miami International Airport as he was trying to fly black to his native country after a family vacation. Another VW employee, an engineer named James Liang, pleaded guilty last September and is waiting for his sentencing.
If the maximum sentence would be given for all of those charges, he could face up to 169 years in federal prison, but that sentence is not likely.
Schmidt’s attorney requested the judge to allow Schmidt to access his prescription glasses, along with his medication. Transfer to another facility was petitioned, but the latter was not under the magistrate’s authority.
The Volkswagen executive was brought to court in the red jumpsuit assigned to prisoners, and he was shackled at the wrists and ankles, Automotive News notes.
Oliver Schmidt was Volkswagen’s responsible for overseeing U.S. emissions and compliance, and he was also the person that sought certification for the TDI engines that were later caught using a “defeat device.”
From 2012 to 2015, he was Volkswagen’s lead executive for the Engineering and Environmental Office, which led investigators to believe that he was familiar with the existence of the software, and also involved in the cover-up of its use.
Even if he did not know about the cheat, he found out about the “dirty diesel” discovered after the West Virginia University performed an independent test in 2014 using a Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI. The examination led to the discovery of VW’s cheating scheme, which was admitted in September 2015.
Seven current and former executives from Volkswagen are charged in the ongoing case in the USA, but five of them are in Germany with no extradition in sight.
Schmidt was detained at the Miami International Airport as he was trying to fly black to his native country after a family vacation. Another VW employee, an engineer named James Liang, pleaded guilty last September and is waiting for his sentencing.
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