DETROIT — U.S. prosecutors are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for a Volkswagen senior manager who pleaded guilty in the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal.

Oliver Schmidt will be sentenced Wednesday in Detroit federal court. In a court filing this week, the Justice Department said he followed a “script of deception” while VW was using sophisticated software to cheat emissions rules on nearly 600,000 vehicles.

Schmidt led VW’s engineering and environmental office in Michigan from 2012 to early 2015. Defense lawyers are recommending that his sentence not exceed 40 months in prison, the punishment given to VW engineer James Liang.

The government said Liang cooperated with investigators while Schmidt did not.

The diesel vehicles were programmed to turn on pollution controls during testing and off while on the road. In 2015, according to the government, Schmidt talked with California regulators and concealed the software tricks while offering “bogus technical explanations.”

Prosecutors said Schmidt obstructed justice by getting rid of documents that were relevant to the U.S. investigation and giving false information to agents.