Six top executives of Volkswagen were indicted Wednesday on charges they helped the company skirt the Clean Air Act while defrauding the U.S. government. The indictments came as the Justice Department announced Volkswagen will pay $4.3 billion in fines after pleading guilty to three felony counts. This is Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch: “Hundreds of thousands of cars that Volkswagen sold in the United States were pumping illegal levels of nitrogen oxide into our atmosphere—up to 40 times more than the amounts permitted under federal law. Now, what’s more, these vehicles were equipped with software that masked the true amount of the pollutants the cars released, thwarting the regulators who were doing the environmental testing.”