The company acknowledged wrongdoing and will pay a monstrous, bar-setting $4.3 billion penalty. According to government officials, at least 40 of the car manufacture's employees took part in the destruction of evidence. VW installed software in close to 600,000 U.S. engines, and 11 million worldwide, that turned pollution controls off while the cars were on the road, but switched them on during testing.
VW also agreed to supervision from an independent monitor to oversee compliance measures for three years.