Sept. 25, 2019—A senior manager at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was indicted on charges he lied to regulators about diesel emissions, reported Reuters. Emanuele Palma, a senior manager of diesel drivability and emissions at Fiat Chrysler, faces charges of conspiracy, fraud, violating federal environmental law and making false statements stemming from work on Fiat Chrysler’s emissions system in U.S. vehicles with diesel engines
The charges came on the same day that prosecutors in Germany indicted Volkswagen’s current and former CEOs and the company’s board chairman on charges they failed to inform investors of that company’s diesel-emissions fraud after they learned of it in 2015.
The indictment describes what it refers to as a “scheme” to use sophisticated software tricks to deceive regulators about the emissions performance of diesel engines offered in Ram pickup trucks and Jeep sport-utility vehicles.
Fiat Chrysler, which has previously denied purposefully attempting to evade emissions requirements, said in a statement it would “continue to fully cooperate with the authorities, as we have throughout this issue” and declined to comment further to Reuters.
