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FRANKFURT: Former Audi boss Rupert Stadler becomes the first to be tried in Germany for the “dieselgate” emissions scandal on Wednesday (September 30), five years after parent company VW admitted responsibility.
Stadler, 57, faces charges of “fraud, falsification of certifications and misleading advertising,” according to an indictment that will be read before the Munich district court.
He is in the dock alongside former Audi and Porsche director Wolfgang Hatz and two Audi engineers.
So far, not a single senior executive has been convicted in Germany in connection with the scandal that erupted in September 2015 when the Volkswagen group acknowledged that it had installed cheat software on 11 million diesel engines.
So-called deactivation devices made cars appear less polluting in lab tests than they did on the road.
Media interest in the opening hearing is expected to be high, prompting court officials to move the proceedings to a justice building in a Munich suburb.
However, due to coronavirus restrictions, seating within the courtroom will be limited, a court spokesman told AFP.
“DO NO EVIL”
Stadler had been Audi’s chief executive for 11 years when he was arrested in June 2018.
He spent four months in pretrial detention for fear of trying to influence witnesses.
A career man at Audi, he joined the luxury automaker in 1990 and was named CEO in 2007.
Prosecutors say Stadler knew of the emissions scam by the end of September 2015 “at the latest” but nonetheless allowed thousands of more vehicles equipped with deactivation devices to be sold.
His three fellow defendants are accused of having developed diesel engines equipped with the manipulation software, which were installed in cars sold in 2009.
The charges against the men cover a total of 434,420 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles sold in Europe and the United States.
Stadler has consistently denied the allegations.
Co-defendant Hatz, whose previous roles at the VW group include head of research and development at his Porsche unit, also rejects any wrongdoing.
His attorney said Hatz would respond to the charges “in detail.”
The large and complex test is expected to last until the end of December 2022.
The indictment alone, to be read aloud Wednesday, is more than 90 pages long.
The defendants face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
INVOICE “DIESELGATE”
Stadler isn’t the only top executive preparing for his day in court.
A regional court in Brunswick, near VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters, ruled earlier this month that Martin Winterkorn, a former chief executive of the VW group, must be tried on charges of fraud and manipulation of the stock market.
The group’s current chief executive, Herbert Diess, and the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Poetsch, had faced similar accusations of failing to inform shareholders in a timely manner about the pollution scam.
But those procedures were abandoned after VW agreed to a deal that cost it € 9 million ($ 10.5 million).
Five years after the crisis hit, the German car giant remains one of the world’s largest automakers, but it remains mired in costly legal trouble.
The group has already paid more than 30 billion euros in fines, legal costs and compensation to car owners, mainly in the United States.
In April, VW settled Germany’s largest lawsuit in an out-of-court settlement in which it agreed to pay around 750 million euros to 235,000 customers, or between 1,350 and 6,250 euros per car.
And the final “dieselgate” bill is far from being resolved after a German high court ordered VW in May to buy a tampered diesel from its owner, setting the stage for similar transactions with thousands of other plaintiffs.
