FRANKFURT — A PowerPoint presentation was prepared by a top technology executive at Volkswagen in 2006, laying out in detail how the automaker could cheat on emissions tests in the United States.

The presentation has been discovered as part of the continuing investigations into Volkswagen, according to two people who have seen the document and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the legal action against the company. It provides the most direct link yet to the genesis of the deception at Volkswagen, which admitted late last year that 11 million vehicles worldwide were equipped with software to cheat on tests that measured pollution in emissions.

It is not known how widely the presentation was distributed at Volkswagen. But its existence, and the proposal it made to install the software, highlight a series of flawed decisions at the embattled carmaker surrounding the emissions problem.

Those decisions exposed the company to billions of dollars in fines as well as criminal investigations. Last Friday, Volkswagen reported a record $6.2 billion loss, after setting aside $18 billion to cover the costs of fines, legal claims and recalls. As a first step in a broader settlement under negotiation, Volkswagen agreed to fix or buy back 500,000 diesel vehicles in the United States, beginning with model year 2009.