Volkswagen's former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, has been charged by U.S. authorities with conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act and defraud the United States.
An indictment unsealed Thursday in a Michigan federal court shows five other VW executives have also been charged. Winterkorn resigned in 2015 when it was revealed that the car company went to great lengths to program vehicles in a way that would trick U.S. government diesel emissions tests. Nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles were able to get around the tests.
Volkswagen has agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines related to the scheme. Winterkorn told German parliament members last year that he had no clue about the workaround, saying, "It is not comprehensible why I was not informed early and clearly about the measurement problems."
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