Dieselgate: Volkswagen engineer sentenced to 40 months of imprisonment

Volkswagen engineer James Liang has been sentenced to 40 months of imprisonment and fined $200,000 for his role in the company's diesel emissions scandal.

U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox passed the judgement in a hearing in Detroit.

"The punishment imposed on the German exceeded prosecutors' recommendation. They had asked that Liang receive three years imprisonment and a $20,000 fine," reported Wall Street Journal.

Dubbing the dieselgate as "stunning fraud on the American consumer", Judge Cox stated, "This is a very serious and troubling crime against our economic system."

Liang was arrested in January at Miami International Airport.

The German automobile company had failed to develop the so-called "clean diesel" engine and had realized that they could not design such a diesel engine that would meet the stricter U.S. emissions standards.

So, they designed and implemented software to cheat on the government emissions tests while polluting far beyond legal limits on the road.

The cars emitted more than 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.

Earlier this year, Liang pleaded guilty to misleading regulators, and had cooperated with prosecutors in the early stages of their investigation of Volkswagen and its employees.