Schmidt was told to write a cheque for $400,000 as a fine. All this represents the maximum sentence that Schmidt could have received under the plea deal he signed in August.

However, the whole thing stinks. Schmidt was an emissions compliance executive for VW, and while he was no doubt involved in the scandal, he was by no means the instigator, but appears to have been made the scapegoat. German coppers have arrested Wolfgang Hatz who was the head of VW engine development. But it is incredibly unlikely that two men operated alone and without the nod of people further up the food chain.

Schmidt also wrote a letter to the judge, which surfaced over the weekend, in which the executive said he felt “misused” by his own company and claimed that higher-ranked VW executives coached him on a script to help him lie to a California Air Resources Board (CARB) official.

That strategy did not pay off because Schmidt appears to have carried the can for all VW executives. In August, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to making a false statement under the Clean Air Act.

Schmidt’s plea deal stated that the former executive could face up to seven years in prison and between $40,000 and $400,000 in fines.

Only one other VW employee has been sentenced in connection with the emissions scandal: former engineer James Liang, who received 40 months in prison and two years of supervised release as the result of his plea deal. Although six other VW Group executives have been indicted, none is in US custody.

According to a DOJ press release published today: “Schmidt knew that VW’s diesel vehicles were not compliant with US standards and regulations and that these representations made to domestic customers were false.”

US District Judge Sean Cox told Schmidt: “You are a key conspirator responsible for the cover-up in the United States of a massive fraud perpetuated on the American consumer”, at the end of a two-hour-long hearing.”