Senior executives at Volkswagen AG have been advised not to make travel plans to the United States anytime soon. An unnamed legal adviser of the company was said to have issued the warning as one of six executives involved in a lawsuit on the diesel test cheating scandal has been charged and arrested in Miami last Saturday, Jan. 14.
It's unclear which senior executives have been advised to hold off U.S. travel plans, Autoblog revealed. It is believed, however, that even those who have not been part of the lawsuit are to take heed and follow the legal team's advice.
"One doesn't need to test the limits," the legal advisers said, according to Reuters. It suggested that Volkswagen senior executives shouldn't make themselves vulnerable to arrests. The country has extradition treaties with countries under the European Union only, but then leaving the country could pose big risks, as in the case of the arrested executive Oliver Schmidt.
Schmidt, who was in charge of Volkswagen's regulatory compliance office until 2015, was apparently advised ahead of time to forego his travel plans to the United States. But he still pursued his trip to Miami and thus U.S. authorities nabbed him on site. He is due to be arraigned in court on Monday, Jan. 16.
Meanwhile, a Volkswagen board member and the brand head is said to be currently in Detroit to attend the annual auto show. Colleagues credited Herbert Diess for his bold and risky move. But then again, he joined the company in July 2015, which was a few months after U.S. charged Volkswagen in the diesel test cheating scandal.
Volkswagen admitted to cheating on the emission tests for its diesel engines among cars sold in the United States. It used a "defeat device" that showed varying results when it should have accurately shown that the cars emitted high levels of nitrogen oxide.
The lawsuit was spearheaded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The company has had thousands of layoffs and lost billions due to recalls as well as fines, according to BBC.
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