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The United States has indicted a number of former Volkswagen employees in the diesel scandal.
Detroit in the process of extradition because of his role in the diesel scandal in the United States convicted and detained Ex-Volkswagen manager Oliver Schmidt to Germany comes movement. Schmidt gave his consent at a court hearing in Detroit on Thursday to be transferred to his home country.
Ultimately, however, whether this is approved is in the power of the judicial authorities and, according to Schmidt’s lawyers, has not yet been conclusively clarified. Efforts are being made to continue the process.
Schmidt was sentenced to seven years in prison and a $ 400,000 fine in 2017 as an alleged accomplice in VW’s emissions manipulation in the United States. His lawyers have been campaigning for extradition to Germany for years, where he could serve his remaining detention.
Ex-VW engineer James Liang had previously done this, who was the first defendant in the emissions scandal to be convicted in the United States. He was released from prison early just a few weeks after his return to Germany at the end of 2019.
Several ex-employees charged
Schmidt was in charge from February 2012 to March 2015, according to the US indictment VWFunction entrusted with environmental issues in the USA and is said to have misled the judicial authorities in their “Dieselgate” investigations. The FBI caught the German on January 7, 2017, before returning home from a Florida vacation.
Whether Schmidt was a mastermind or rather a farmer victim in the scandal that was condemned to VWGroup has already caused more than 30 billion euros in legal costs is still not entirely clear.
The USA has indicted a whole series of former Volkswagen employees in the “Dieselgate” affair, including ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn. But despite international arrest warrants, most of them have no fear of immediate consequences because they are not at risk of extradition to the United States.
So far, only Liang and Schmidt have been brought to trial in the United States. In June, however, another VW manager was arrested in Croatia, who could be brought before the US court.