Schmidt was initially charged with 11 felony counts and could have faced a sentence of 169 years in prison. The guilty plea led to prosecutors dropping most of the charges. Volkswagen told Reuters that it "continues to cooperate with investigations by the Department of Justice into the conduct of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters." The car company has also agreed to pay up to $25 billion in the US to resolve claims from consumers and regulators; it has also offered to buy back about 500,000 diesel vehicles.