[ad_1]
Stadler, a former Audi boss, and three other defendants will now have to answer in court. It is the first criminal case in the diesel scandal. The accusation: fraud. Initially, the court stopped the prosecution.
The first day of the criminal trial surrounding the diesel scandal ended with good news for defendant former Audi boss Rupert Stadler: According to the Munich Regional Court, the alleged crimes can only be neglected, inactive. he had assumed in the accusation, among other things, fraud in commission of indirect acts and by omission. In the case of acts of omission, the range of punishment can be reduced.
Stadler is accused of selling diesel cars with improved emission values, along with former Audi engine chief and Porsche technical director Wolfgang Hatz and two engineers. In theory, they face up to ten years in prison if convicted.
Stadler wants to testify
However, investigators only accuse Stadler of failing to stop the production and sale of cars with the fraudulent software after the tampering was discovered in September 2015. More than 120,000 vehicles with excessive nitrogen emissions were still on the road. The buyers suffered damages of 28 million euros.
According to his lawyer, the former CEO wants to testify in the process. From 2007, he was a director of Audi for almost twelve years, until 2018, when he spoke about an employee’s leave in a phone call with microphones and was jailed for four months for the risk of a blackout. He sees himself wrongly accused. He had told reporters:
“What should I do if they tell me the six cylinder is clean?”
The allegations against the three co-defendants are much more serious: According to the prosecution, they organized the illegal exhaust gas stunts from 2007 onwards and ensured that the corresponding engines were installed in 434,420 cars.
Amount of damage not very clear
As for the amount of damages, the prosecutor is not entirely sure: perhaps 3,200 million euros, because cars in the United States were practically worth scrap metal. Perhaps only 170 million euros, that is the cost of removing the manipulations.
The head of this trio was Hatz, who was Head of Engine Development at Audi from 2001 to 2009, and then at VW. Denies the charges. However, the other two engineers have already confessed.
Prosecutors declared the route of fraud
At the start of the trial, prosecutors first explained how the idea to improve issue values came about. Based on this, the head of the exhaust gas aftertreatment department, Henning L., calculated in 2006 that one liter of Adblue urea solution would be enough to maintain the nitrogen oxide limit for 1000 kilometers. Then the cars were designed with 23-liter tanks, apparently enough until the next maintenance interval.
But during test drives in late 2007 and early 2008, it turned out that this was not enough. Audi and VW wanted to conquer the US market from November 2008 with their “Clean Diesel”, the “cleanest diesel in the world”. A technician wrote to Henning L. and his boss Giovanni P in January 2008:
“We won’t do it without shitting.”
According to the prosecution, Giovanni P. demanded “smart solutions” and finally ordered the installation of test recognition.
“Clearly not allowed”
The emission control worked perfectly on the dyno, but it was sped up on the highway. Giovanni P., Head of Department from 2002 to 2015, sees himself as a simple recipient of orders. According to the indictment, he coordinated all the manipulations with Hatz “and approved.” Henning L. is said to have pointed out the violation of the law to Hatz. And an employee is said to have warned Giovanni P: “This is a clear deactivation device and is not allowed.”
The process is expected to last a good two years, until the end of 2022. In the coming weeks, defense attorneys and then defendants will give their opinion. The prosecution accuses all of them of fraud, misleading advertising and false indirect certification. He has also indicted three former Stadler boardmates and Hatz’s predecessor as Audi engine chief.
What cars are the judges driving?
Visually, at the beginning of the process, Stadler stayed away from the brand with the four rings, where he has spent most of his professional life: he arrived in a Mercedes S-Class, the car of his defender.
In the courtroom, the lawyer drew attention to the judges’ records, with a request for bias: from the beginning he wanted to know whether the judges or their spouses had driven VW Group diesel cars after 2009. This could lead to exclusion due to biases. The court wants to respond “in due course”.
