German auto giant Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts Friday resulting from a 2015 emissions cheating scandal that has cost the company tens of billions of dollars.
The guilty plea marks the first time the company itself has pleaded guilty to felony charges stemming from the fraud, which affected more than half-a-million diesel cars sold in the U.S. and about 11 million globally. Individual company officials also have been charged.
The company installed defeat device software in 600,000 “clean diesel” vehicles that allowed the cars to pass emissions tests, but then switched to a normal mode after testing that allowed the cars to spew about 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen into the atmosphere, violating the Clean Air Act.
Friday’s charges include conspiracy to commit fraud and obstruction of justice, as well as making false statements to sell goods in the United States.
“This a very, very, very serious crime,” said U.S. District Judge Sean Cox in accepting VW’s plea in eastern Michigan. “It is incumbent on me to make a considered decision,” he added. The sentencing hearing will be held April 21.
The carmaker had agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties for both criminal and civil violations in January, after six company officials were indicted.
The news comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to meet with President Trump next week to discuss a number of trade issues, where the diesel scandal could come up.
Merkel this week tried to distance her administration from the VW fraud while testifying before German lawmakers investigating the illegal actions that the company admitted were intentional.
She told lawmakers that she only learned about the company’s fraud from news reports after the Environmental Protection Agency announced it in September 2015, according to Bloomberg.
She didn’t talk to the head of Volkswagen until nearly a week after the U.S. announced the fraud charges. She also told lawmakers that she disagreed with the description of the event as a “gigantic scandal.”
