Emissions fraud: Former VW managers sentenced to prison and suspended sentences
After nearly four years in court, four former Volkswagen managers were convicted: two of them sentenced to prison and two received suspended sentences.
(Image: Volkswagen)
Almost ten years after the discovery of the fraud involving emissions limits for diesel engines, four former Volkswagen executives have been found guilty. The Commercial Criminal Chamber of the Braunschweig Regional Court sent two defendants to prison for several years, while two others were given suspended sentences.
The managers and senior engineers, who the court found to be responsible for the fraudulent programming of the control units in millions of cars sold by all Group brands, accused each other during the trial. Their accusations were directed in particular at the then Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn. They see themselves as scapegoats for the failure at management level.
Mutual recriminations
During the court proceedings, which lasted almost four years, the engineers claimed that the manipulation had been imposed on them “from above” against their objections. The management, however, only claimed to have been instructed to solve the “problems”, but never insisted on illegal ways to do so. Winterkorn recently described himself as an innocent victim of his employees. He also considers the allegations in the criminal proceedings for fraud and market manipulation at the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office to be inaccurate.
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No legal force yet
According to the Braunschweig Regional Court, the proceedings against Martin Winterkorn and four further criminal proceedings against 31 defendants are still pending following this guilty verdict. The judgment that has just been handed down is not yet legally binding. The proceedings against Winterkorn were severed in September 2021 due to the 78-year-old ex-CEO's health problems, and are currently suspended following an accident involving the defendant. It is unclear when it can be resumed.
The emissions fraud was uncovered in September 2015 due to implausible measurement results in the USA. It was discovered that these had been deliberately manipulated by a so-called “defeat device” in a fraudulent manner. A few days later, Group CEO Winterkorn resigned. Volkswagen estimates its financial loss to date at around 33 billion euros. Among other things, it led to EU proceedings against Germany.
(fpi)