Volkswagen was accused by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for having installed sophisticated software in about 500,000 U.S. vehicles to manipulate vehicle emission tests. This software tricked the tests into believing the 4-cylinder diesel vehicles complied with emission standards. In reality, the cars were emitting 40 times the acceptable standards.

Volkswagen said that the software is present in about 11 million vehicles worldwide. Volkswagen has since promised to fix the 482,000 cars affected in the US. This issue will require the company to set aside $7.3 billion dollars. This money would cover “…the necessary services measures and win back the trust of our customers.”

The biggest victims of this scandal appear to be the shareholders. One of the largest shareholders, the oil nation Qatar, has already lost $5 billion dollars. The company itself has been wiped out of a third of its value, which was about $28.5 billion dollars. The former CEO Martin Winterkorn has since resigned amid the scandal and been replaced by Matthias Müller.