He is the first leader of the Volkswagen group to receive a criminal sanction in the scandal of the rigged diesel engines. The former CEO of Audi was sentenced on Tuesday June 27 in Germany to a twenty-one month suspended prison sentence in the case of the “dieselgate”, as well as a fine of 1.1 million euros.
Rupert Stadler, former boss of the firm with the rings between 2007 and 2018, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, had decided to plead guilty after more than two years of trial in Munich. 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 facts with which he was accused since the start of the investigation and throughout the hearings, which began in September 2020. But he finally agreed in May to admit his guilt, on a proposal of the court, to benefit from a sentence less heavy than the ten years of prison incurred.
Eleven million engines
The “dieselgate” caused a worldwide scandal, heavily tarnishing 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 of its diesel vehicles with software capable of making them appear less polluting. in lab tests and on the road.
Mr. Stadler’s two co-defendants in this lawsuit, a former director at Audi and Porsche, Wolfgang Hatz, and his right-hand man at Audi, Giovanni Pamio, have confessed to manipulating vehicle engines so that the legal values of exhaust gases are met when tested on a bridge but not on the road.
They were sentenced Tuesday respectively to two years in prison suspended with a fine of 400,000 euros, for the first, and to twenty-one months in prison suspended with a fine of 50,000 euros for the second.