Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, during his trial at the Munich court, June 27, 2023 (POOL/AFP/Matthias Schrader)
The former CEO of Audi, the first leader of the Volkswagen group tried in the Dieselgate affair, received a suspended prison sentence in Germany on Tuesday thanks to a late confession about his role in the global scandal of diesel engines rigged .
Rupert Stadler, former boss of the firm with the rings between 2007 and 2018, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, was given a 21-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1.1 million euros by the Munich Regional Court which had been judging him since September 2020.
He was accused of knowing about the installation of illegal software without intervening to stop it.
The 60-year-old former leader had disputed the allegations since the start of the investigation and throughout the hearings. But he had finally agreed in May to admit his guilt, on the proposal of the court, to benefit from a sentence less severe than the ten years in prison incurred.
The “Dieselgate” caused a worldwide scandal and heavily tarnished the reputation of the German automobile industry.
In 2015, following accusations from the US Environmental Agency (EPA), Volkswagen admitted to having equipped 11 million “EA 189” type engines on its diesel vehicles with software capable of making them appear less polluting. in lab tests and on the road.
– Clemency –
The two co-defendants of Mr. Stadler in this trial, a former director at Audi and Porsche, Wolfgang Hatz, and his right-hand man at Audi, Giovanni Pamio, have confessed to having manipulated vehicle engines so that the legal values of gas of exhaust are met when tested on a bridge, but not on the road.
Wolfgang Hatz, former director at Audi AG, arrives at the Munich court for the “Dieselgate” trial, on June 27, 2023 in Germany (AFP/Christof STACHE)
They were sentenced Tuesday respectively to two years in prison suspended with a fine of 400,000 euros for the first and 21 months in prison suspended with a fine of 50,000 euros for the second.
The guilty plea procedure and the relative leniency of the sentences proposed by the court have drawn criticism in Germany in view of the scale of the case.
“A gigantic economic scandal, millions of customers deceived worldwide, billions of euros in fines for the company – and the only senior executive tried so far gets off with such a lenient sentence?” , had carried away the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The prosecution estimated that Rupert Stadler, a trained financier, had caused damages of up to 69 million euros, corresponding to the wrongful marketing of 26,546 vehicles during the incriminated period.
– Unanswered questions –
The Volkswagen group has since had to pay more than 30 billion euros in reimbursements, damages and legal costs, the largest of which in the United States.
Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler (c) during his trial at the Munich court on June 27, 2023 (POOL/AFP/Matthias Schrader)
While Mr. Stadler is the first top Volkswagen Group executive to be convicted in the scandal, his trial leaves questions unanswered: Who initiated the fraud? What other Volkswagen executives knew about it and let the fraud continue?
All eyes are on the court in Brunswick (north), not far from the manufacturer’s historic headquarters, where another major criminal trial started in September 2021, involving four former Volkswagen officials accused of fraud.
Hearings are scheduled until 2024 but still without the main defendant, the former CEO of the first European manufacturer at the time of the scandal, Martin Winterkorn, exempt from trial for medical reasons.
Investors are also claiming legal compensation, while the title of VW had collapsed by some 40% in the days following the outbreak of the scandal.
The headquarters of the German car manufacturer Volkswagen, March 26, 2021 in Wolfsburg (AFP/Archives/Ronny Hartmann)
Other legal aspects remain open, such as in France where the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed in March the indictment for aggravated deception of Volkswagen. The German group is not alone here, the manufacturers Renault, Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler having also been indicted in mid-2021.
The slag of its sulphurous past will still accompany for a while the first European manufacturer led today by Oliver Blume, a manager who came from the Porsche subsidiary to lead the group’s transition to electric and resist the rise in power of Chinese competitors. .
© 2023 AFP
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