DETROIT – Four employees of Audi are facing charges on allegations they violated U.S. clean air standards in the production of vehicles sold in the United States, according to court documents.
Richard Bauder, Axel Eisner, Stefan Knirsch and Carsten Nagel are all facing charges and were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Detroit. A hearing date has not yet been set.
Audi AG, where they worked, was a vehicle manufacturer based in Germany and was approximately 99 percent owned by Volkswagen, according to documents.
The four are facing charges that they conspired to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud and to violate the clean air act. The alleged purpose of the conspiracy was to deceive U.S. regulators so they could sell vehicles in a way that evaded U.S. emissions standards.
According to the document, between around 2006 to 2015 they developed and implemented device software in vehicles that was designed to recognize U.S. emissions tests and cheat those tests.
View: Indictment