Literally right above the paragraph I quoted says Schmidt sought lenience on the grounds that he was ordered to lie to the regulators by his supervisors and a company lawyer.
Looks like in his own mind his only crime was being loyal to a corrupt foreman. Classically German.
> In a letter to the judge before the sentencing, Mr. Schmidt said his loyalty to Volkswagen had led him to be “misused by my own company.” He cited a meeting in 2015 with a senior official at the California Air Resources Board at which he concealed the existence of software that allowed Volkswagen to cheat on emission tests.
> “A script, or talking points, I was directed to follow for that meeting was approved by management level supervisors at VW, including a high-ranking in-house lawyer, ” he said in the letter. “Regrettably, I agreed to follow it.”
None of that implies he was ordered to lie to regulators. It says he concealed software and followed a script, not that the people who wrote or approved the script knew he would be lying to regulators by following that script, or that he was concealing software.
Looks like in his own mind his only crime was being loyal to a corrupt foreman. Classically German.