Friday 23 April 2021
Compensation for diesel scandal
VW wants half a billion winter grain
Martin Winterkorn has trouble with his former employer: Volkswagen presents his former boss with the accounts for the diesel scandal. Whether and how much of it Winterkorn’s insurance pays is still open.
The VW Group is demanding compensation from its former boss Martin Winterkorn and four other former managers in connection with the diesel scandal. The company announced this on Friday after a meeting of the supervisory board. The inspectors had previously discussed the results of extensive tests on the recourse question. Volkswagen stated that the former top managers will now be “sued for damages for breaches of the duty of care under stock corporation law”.
The financial extent of the claims was initially not made public. NDR, WDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” report in the case of Winterkorn of more than half a billion euros. The group justified the amount of the sum with the fact that VW could have saved this amount. The demands of the other managers were significantly lower.
The bill from VW is therefore aimed at the insurer Winterkorns. According to information from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the consortium in which VW has secured its managers is led by the Swiss insurer Zurich. According to the report, the amount of insurance is 500 million euros. It applies in the case of negligent breach of duty – but not if Winterkorn is convicted of fraud. Winterkorn would then have to be liable with his private assets. The trial before the Braunschweig regional court is to begin on September 16; it had been postponed because of the corona pandemic.
The diesel scandal at Volkswagen became known in September 2015. At the time, VW admitted that it had installed software in certain diesel engines that only reduced nitrogen oxide emissions on the test bench, but not in road traffic. In October 2015, the Supervisory Board initiated an examination of liability claims. At the end of March this year, VW finally announced that the group was demanding compensation from Winterkorn, the former Audi boss Rupert Stadler and three other former managers. All deny the allegations.
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