April 24, 2017—Volkswagen must pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine for building a diesel engine equipped with software to cheat on greenhouse gas emissions tests, according to a report by USA Today.
According to the report, U.S. District Judge Sean Cox accepted a $4.3 billion plea agreement reached in January between the automaker and the federal government. The agreement includes the fine. VW was also sentenced to three years of probation and accepted the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee the automaker’s compliance with federal regulations.
“The is a case of deliberate, massive fraud perpetrated by VW management,” said Cox, according to USA Today. “This case also involves a failure of the VW supervisory board, which is government, labor and shareholders.”
