The FBI just scored a major win in its investigation of Volkswagen’s mass emissions fraud. Former Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt was arrested while visiting Miami on vacation from Germany.

Schmidt, a former emissions compliance executive, is charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. for his role in hiding software Volkswagen installed on 11 million diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests. And while he’s the first Volkswagen executive placed under arrest, there’s a big chance the blame climbs even higher up the corporate ladder.  

Volkswagen defrauded regulators and customers across the world, putting people and the planet at risk. But so far, it’s been mostly low-level engineers who have taken the fall. There’s no way that this massive fraud could have been committed without Volkswagen leadership signing off, which means if Volkswagen is committed to cooperating with the Department of Justice’s investigation, it needs to stop shielding its top executives from facing justice.

Tell Volkswagen to stop sheltering high-level executives from prosecution by U.S. authorities.

Schmidt’s arrest is damning for Volkswagen’s claims that top executives did not understand the scope of emissions fraud until regulators first raised questions. The case against Schmidt alleges he had briefed executives “in detail” at Volkswagen headquarters months before the first public allegations of fraud.

Volkswagen engineer James Liang faces five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges for his role in emissions cheating. But the DOJ investigation is pointing higher and higher up the corporate ladder. We can’t let Volkswagen executives off the hook while they let lower-level employees take all the heat.     

Volkswagen is close to cutting a deal with the Justice Department to pay some $2 billion to settle its criminal investigation. But that doesn’t mean individual employees can’t face further prosecution. As evidence of a company-wide cover up builds, it’s time for us to call on Volkswagen to live up to its promise to cooperate with the investigation.