A German court gave Rupert Stadler, the former head of Audi, a suspended sentence along with a fine Tuesday as he became the highest-ranking executive to be convicted in connection with an emissions cheating scandal. 

As part of a plea deal, the court gave Stadler a 21-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay $1.2 million. 

Prosecutors did not accuse Stadler of orchestrating the system in which Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, admitted it used software to rig emissions tests in 11 million diesel vehicles to make them seem less polluting. 

Stadler admitted to continuing to allow vehicles potentially equipped with the software to be sold even after learning about the scam. 

The court gave co-defendant Wolfgang Hatz, a former manager at Audi and Porsche, a two-year suspended sentence along with a $438,000 fine.  An Audi engineer received a 21-month suspended sentence and a $55,000 fine. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters 
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