In VW case, US takes aim at employees, not just corporation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six high-level Volkswagen employees from Germany have been indicted in the U.S. in the automaker's emissions-cheating scandal as prosecutors made good on efforts to charge individuals in a corporate corruption case.

In announcing the federal charges and a corporate plea bargain by Volkswagen, Justice Department prosecutors on Wednesday detailed a large and elaborate scheme inside the German automaker to commit fraud and then cover it up, with at least 40 employees allegedly involved in destroying evidence.

[...] the criminal charges are a major breakthrough for a Justice Department that been under pressure to hold individuals accountable for corporate misdeeds ever since the 2008 financial crisis.

VW admitted installing software in diesel engines on nearly 600,000 VW, Porsche and Audi vehicles in the U.S. that activated pollution controls during government tests and switched them off in real-world driving.

The penalties bring the cost of the scandal to VW in the United States to nearly $20 billion, not counting lost sales and damage to the automaker's reputation.

Volkswagen previously reached a $15 billion civil settlement with U.S. environmental authorities and car owners under which it agreed to repair or buy back as many as a half-million of the affected vehicles.

The six supervisors indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit were accused of lying to environmental regulators or destroying computer files containing evidence.