2023-06-27 06:40:30
For more than two and a half years, the Munich Regional Court has been trying to shed light on the 2015 diesel scandal. Now it announces its verdict against ex-Audi boss Stadler and the two co-defendants.
In the fraud trial about manipulated diesel engines at Audi, the Munich Regional Court wants to announce the verdict against former CEO Rupert Stadler and his two co-defendants today. All three confessed.
The first criminal case in Germany over the Volkswagen Group’s diesel scandal lasted two years and nine months. Stadler had long maintained his innocence. It was only after the court pointed out an impending prison sentence that the 60-year-old admitted that he had stopped the sale of cars with manipulated exhaust gas values in Europe much too late after the scandal broke in 2015 in the USA: In view of the indications of trickery in Europe too As CEO, he should have been more careful with models, provided information and intervened.
According to the court, he confessed to the “fraud by omission” he was accused of. According to an agreement between the court, the public prosecutor’s office and the defense, Stadler can now expect a suspended sentence of between one and a half and two years if he pays 1.1 million euros.
The co-accused
As a former Audi boss and member of the VW Group board, Stadler is the most prominent accused. However, the allegations against the two co-accused weigh more heavily: the former head of Audi engine development Wolfgang Hatz and the senior engineer P. According to a preliminary assessment by the court, they and the originally co-accused engineer L. ensured that impermissible defeat devices were used in the exhaust gas cleaning system engines were installed.
The beginning of the scam
The trio are said to have manipulated large diesel engines for around 400,000 cars from Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche from 2008 onwards so that they passed emissions tests but emitted more nitrogen oxide on the road than permitted. The aim was to save the subsequent installation of larger AdBlue tanks for exhaust gas cleaning after the group’s technicians had miscalculated. P. is said to have demanded “intelligent solutions” from his employees in order to meet the expectations from above that could hardly be fulfilled.
The confessing engineer L. appeared as a key witness, the proceedings against him were dropped. Hatz and P. also made extensive confessions. The court promised them suspended sentences, with payment of 400,000 or 50,000 euros as a condition of probation. The public prosecutor’s office agreed to this in the case of the engineer P. as part of an agreement, but for Hatz they demanded a prison sentence of three years and two months without parole.
The damage
In view of the very lengthy taking of evidence – the trial began in September 2020 and lasted 172 days – observers expect a very extensive justification of the judgment by the presiding judge Stefan Weickert. In it he will also comment on the amount of damage for which the three accused are responsible. The prosecution had estimated the damage for which Hatz and P. were responsible at up to 3.1 billion euros, but reduced it by a third in their pleadings. According to the public prosecutor, Stadler is responsible for damage of 69 million euros.
Mitigating circumstances
Stadler, Hatz and P. had each been in custody for several months. The arrest warrants against her have existed for more than five years and were only suspended under certain conditions. If convicted, the accused must also bear the costs of the proceedings, including expert opinions and witness expenses, totaling over one million euros. In addition, there are legal fees for many thousands of hours. Stadler had already paid the Volkswagen Group 4.1 million euros in damages for breach of duty in the course of a settlement.
The public prosecutor’s office had emphasized in their pleadings that they did not see the accused as primarily responsible for the diesel scandal. It is even doubtful whether there can be one or more people primarily responsible “when so many people involved in the company are going in the wrong direction”.
More processes
Four former top managers of the Volkswagen Group have been on trial in Braunschweig since September 2021 for possible fraud in the diesel affair. The case against former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn is on hold due to illness.
The Munich public prosecutor’s office had already indicted four other former Audi managers in 2020 – three former colleagues on the board of Stadler and the long-standing head of the main diesel engine department at Audi. It is still unclear whether and when this process will begin. (dpa)
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