Former Volkswagen executive sentenced to 7 years for emissions cheating

CHICAGO, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- A former Volkswagen executive was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in prison and fined 400,000 U.S. dollars for his role in emissions fraud.

A U.S. District Court in Detroit, Michigan State, gave Oliver Schmidt the maximum sentence and fine for the his role in the automaker's diesel emissions cheating scandal in the U.S. market, the Detroit News reported.

The German national had pleaded guilty in August to two charges following the disclosure of a scheme by Volkswagen to rig some half million diesel cars to evade U.S. emission standards.

"This crime ... attacks and destroys the very foundation of our economic system: that is trust," federal judge Sean Cox was quoted as saying.

Schmidt was Volkswagen's former manager in charge of emissions compliance for the United States.

Volkswagen had already been fined 2.8 billion U.S. dollars after pleading guilty to three criminal charges related to its decade-long conspiracy to evade U.S. emission standards.

The German automaker also reached a 14.7 billion dollars civil agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency called on Volkswagen to spend 10 more billion dollars to buy back or repair the rigged diesel cars it sold in the U.S. market. Enditem