The Latest: VW senior manager gets 7 years in US prison

DETROIT (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing of Volkswagen senior manager Oliver Schmidt in the company's diesel emissions scandal (all times local):___4 p.m.

A Volkswagen senior manager has been sentenced to seven years in a U.S. prison for concealing software that was used to evade pollution limits on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles.

Lawyers spent roughly 90 minutes giving different views about Oliver Schmidt's culpability in the scandal. But Judge Sean Cox sided with prosecutors, calling Schmidt a "key conspirator" who viewed the cover-up as an opportunity to "shine" and "climb the corporate ladder."

Schmidt led VW's engineering and environmental office in Michigan from 2012 to early 2015.