Report: VW agrees to $4.3B settlement in emissions scandal

Volkswagen has agreed to a $4.3 billion draft settlement to end a legal fight with federal regulators over its diesel emissions scandal. 

The company said it would pay the fine and also plead guilty to criminal misconduct as part of a criminal and civil settlement with regulators, Reuters reports. VW’s board is meeting this week to approve the settlement deal.

A VW official did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill. 

{mosads}According to the report, VW will now commit to spending more than the $19.2 billion it had previously earmarked to deal with legal issues arising from the scandal.

In 2015, federal officials revealed that Volkswagen was deliberately skirting emissions testing for some of its diesel vehicles. Regulators said VW had equipped up to 11 million vehicles with “defeat devices,” or software allowing the cars to emit more toxic chemicals than is allowed under federal law. 

The company has settled a handful of complaints against it related to the scandal, including a $14.7 billion deal covering owners of 2-liter diesel vehicles and environmental violations and a $1.2 billion deal with U.S. franchise dealers. The company is also planning to buy back 3-liter diesel vehicles that include the defeat device software. 

A former VW engineer pleaded guilty in September to criminal charges related to the scandal. An executive for the company, Oliver Schmidt, was arrested over the weekend in Florida and charged in connection to the emissions cheating on Monday.