Frankfurt: The former head of Volkswagen's luxury division Audi pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges tied to the automaker's diesel emissions scandal, becoming the highest-ranking executive convicted over cars that cheated on emissions tests with the help of illegal software.
Rupert Stadler answered "yes" to a statement read in court by his attorney that said Stadler admitted wrongdoing and regret for his failure to keep rigged cars off the market even after the scandal had become public knowledge, the dpa news agency reported. Stadler entered the plea under an agreement with the judge and prosecutors that provides probation instead of jail time and orders him to pay a 1.1 million euro ($1.2 million) fine in return for a thorough admission of guilt. Three lower-ranking managers also have taken plea deals in the 2 1/2-year-long trial in Munich.
Stadler had been charged with fraud and false certification by prosecutors who said he let cars with rigged software be sold after September 2015. That's when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation under the Clean Air Act after discovering the rigged
software.