(Updated) DETROIT, MI — The FBI has arrested a second Volkswagen
executive in the massive emissions cheating scandal, the federal
government said Monday. Oliver Schmidt, who led the automakers
 regulatory compliance office in the United States, was arrested
 in Florida Monday and is expected to be arraigned in Detroit Monday.
Schmidt is the second high-ranking employee and the first
executive-level employee to be arrested and charged with conspiracy
 to defraud the United States government and wire fraud. He was
 arrested in Miami over the weekend and is expected to be
 arraigned in Detroit at a later date.
The FBI is investigating Volkswagen for allegedly intentionally
installing software engineered to dupe regulators during emissions
control testing on about 500,000 vehicles sold in the United States.
The “defeat device” software turned on during testing but shot
 off during driving to give motorists better performance on the highway.
James Liang, a former engineer who worked for Volkswagen in
 California, pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to defraud
 the government and with violating the Clean Air Act. He agreed
to cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation
 of the automaker’s alleged conspiracy to defraud U.S. regulators
 and U.S. customers, the Justice Department said.
The complaint against Schmidt, dated Dec. 31 and signed by FBI
Special Agent Ian M. Dinsmore, alleges that he participated in the
 cheating scandal 2012-2015, The Detroit News reported.

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In a statement Monday, Volkswagen said it is cooperating with the
 Justice Department’s investigation but said “it would no
t be appropriate” to comment on the ongoing probe or any
 personnel issues.
Volkswagen last month agreed to a $300 million settlement with
 owners of about 80,000 3.0-liter diesel VW, Porsche and Audi
 vehicles. Along with the agreement made by Volkswagen, the
German company Robert Bosch, which produced software for the
 diesel vehicles, agreed to settle civil allegations made by diesel
vehicle owners in the United States.
Additionally, the company agreed to recall 83,000 diesel vehicles
 with model years between 2009 and 2016. The automaker has
 also agreed to buy back older vehicles, terminate leases or offer to
 fix to substantially reduce emissions. If the new vehicles can be
 made emissions compliant, VW will not be required to buy the
cars back.
The company previously reached a deal in June to address emissions
cheating around 475,000 vehicles in which the company admitted
 to install secret software to cheat emissions tests. The 80,000
vehicles in question had an undeclared auxiliary emissions system
that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times the allowable limit.
Photo by Gábor Kovács via Flickr Commons