WASHINGTON — Six high-level Volkswagen employees have been indicted by a grand jury in the company’s emissions cheating scandal, as the company admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay a record $4.3 billion penalty.

In announcing the federal indictments and plea deal Wednesday in Washington, the Justice Department detailed an elaborate and wide-ranging scheme to commit fraud and then cover it up. At least 40 VW employees were involved in destroying evidence, the government said.

The penalty against the company is the largest ever levied by the government against an automaker, eclipsing the $1.2 billion fine against Toyota in 2014 over safety issues related to unintended acceleration.

VW installed software into diesel engines on nearly 600,000 vehicles in the U.S. that allowed the engines to turn on pollution controls during government tests and switch them off in real-world driving.