A Senior Volkswagen Engineer Was Just Indicted: Here's What You Need To Know

A Volkswagen VLKAY engineer has been named in a criminal investigation in a Detroit federal court.

According to Click On Detroit, James Liang, a German national, is accused of being developing a "defeat device" for Volkswagen's diesel cars that help conceal a vehicle's true emission.

Liang directly contributed to Volkswagen rigging more than 10 million vehicles to cheat on emissions tests which resulted in billions of dollars of fines the company was forced to pay.

Liang is being charged in a Detroit court because the fraudulent activity was conducted at an EPA emissions lab in the state.

Scandal Timeline

For a little background, here is a timeline of Volkswagen's emissions scandal.

• Scientists at West Virginia discovered in 2014 that Volkswagen was using a form of software in its diesel cars which are programmed to cheat on clear air tests by running differently.
• Volkswagen denied the allegations to U.S. officials and it wasn't until September 2015 that the EPA announced Volkswagen manufactured and installed cheat devices in its cars to perform better when tested.
• Volkswagen admitted in September 2015 to rigging half a million cars in the U.S. with cheat devices.
• Towards the end of September, the company admitted that 11 million vehicles worldwide were fitted with the cheat devices.
• On September 23, 2015, Martin Winterkorn resigned as CEO of Volkswagen.
• Volkswagen's headquarters across Germany, France and Italy were raided by police as an investigation began in October 2015.
• Michael Horn, Volkswagen's US Chief, told U.S. lawmakers in October 2015 the cheating devices weren't a corporate decision and was done by a "couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reason."
• Volkswagen paid $500 for each affected car in the U.S. in November 2015.
• Nine managers suspected of being involved in the scandal were fired in December 2015.
• The U.S. Justice Department sued Volkswagen in early January 2016 for cheating on emission standards tests.
• Horn parted the company "by mutual agreement" to pursue other interests in March 2016.
• An agreement was finalized in April 2016 in which Volkswagen will buy back half a million cars in the U.S. which were involved in the scandal.
• Volkswagen agreed in June to pay $14.7 billion to settle the scandal, $10 billion of which would go to affected owners, $2.7 billion for an environmental cleanup and $2 billion to promote zero-emissions vehicles.