Oliver Schmidt, a former Volkswagen executive, was arrested in Florida over the weekend on fraud charges.
The FBI arrested Schmidt on Saturday, citing charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, Reuters reported.
Schmidt ran Volkswagen’s regulatory compliance office in the U.S. from 2014 to March of 2015.
Schmidt’s arrest comes after the company admitted in September 2015 to putting “defeat devices” in 475,000 U.S. 2.0-liter diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests, causing the cars to appear to be cleaner than they actually were.
“Volkswagen continues to cooperate with the Department of Justice as we work to resolve remaining matters in the United States,” the company said, according to Reuters. “It would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters.”
Schmidt was scheduled to be arraigned Monday, according to the New York Times.
A 2014 study by West Virginia University first raised the questions regarding Volkswagen and its illegal use of software in its diesel cars.
According to the NYT, FBI Agent Ian Dinsmore said Schmidt played a key role in trying to convince regulators Volkswagen didn't cheat, claiming the unaccounted-for emissions were caused by technical issues.
In an affidavit, the agent said Schmidt deceived American regulators “by offering reasons for the discrepancy other than the fact that VW was intentionally cheating on U.S. emissions tests, in order to allow VW to continue to sell diesel vehicles in the United States.”
According to Automotive News, the “existence, purpose and characteristics” of an emissions cheating device was brought to Schmidt’s attention in July 2015 but he chose not to share the information with U.S. regulators.
Schmidt and other company employees apparently gave a presentation to Volkswagen’s executive management on or about July 27, 2015, in which "VW employees assured VW executive management that U.S. regulators were not aware of the defeat device,” according to the FBI complaint. “Rather than advocate for disclosure of the defeat device to U.S. regulators, VW executive management authorized its continued concealment.”
Herbert Diess, VW brand chief, commented on the matter when he was asked about the situation at the Detroit auto show Monday.
“We simply have to accept that the investigations continue and we hope that we can soon reach a point where we put this behind us,” he said, according to Automotive News. “But these are things that the management board itself has no knowledge of.”