As the first top manager in the Volkswagen diesel scandal, former Audi boss Rupert Stadler (60) must expect a conviction. After two and a half years of negotiations at the Munich Regional Court, the criminal court believes that the allegation of fraud has been substantiated, as the presiding judge Stefan Weickert said in a preliminary assessment on Tuesday. However, he promised the former top manager a suspended sentence in the event of a full confession.
Stadler and three co-defendants have been standing for two and a half years manipulated diesel vehicles and possible fraud in court. According to a preliminary assessment of the evidence so far, the former head of Audi engine development Wolfgang Hatz (64) and the former chief engineer Giovanni P. should expect prison sentences in addition to Stadler. They could also be suspended if they confessed, the judge said on the 161st day of the hearing. For the only fourth defendant who has fully confessed so far, the case may be dropped.
It is the preliminary high point in one of the most spectacular business processes in Germany. It is about the question of personal responsibility in the course of the processing of the diesel scandal at Volkswagen and the group subsidiary Audi. The scandal involving millions of manipulated emissions values was exposed in September 2015. The process has been running since September 2020.
According to the indictment, the three engineers are said to have manipulated engines in such a way that they complied with legal emission values on the test bench, but not on the road. Company boss Stadler is said to have failed to stop the sale of the manipulated cars after the scandal became known. As the judge said on Tuesday, the time from July 11, 2016 for Stadler and the time up to November 20, 2015 for the other accused are considered. Because Audi played a central role in Volkswagen’s engine development, the accused are said to be responsible for multiple deception not only at the Ingolstadt car manufacturer, but also at the sister brands Porsche and VW.
Stadler rejects allegations
Stadler has so far rejected the allegations, he sees himself deceived by his engineers. “The defendants Hatz and Stadler have not confessed,” the judge stated. The chamber “does not see the accused engineer Giovanni P. as having fully confessed”. In the case of the fourth accused, also an engineer, the court sees no significant evidence of a criminal offense. Judges, the public prosecutor’s office and his defense attorneys agreed at the hearing to drop the case against this accused subject to a payment that is still to be negotiated. The defense lawyers for the other defendants did not comment on their further actions.
The court reduced the number of cases of fraud through manipulated car engines that it believed were still pending. The chamber also sees no evidence of the criminal offenses of false certification and criminal advertising accused by the public prosecutor’s office in addition to the allegation of fraud. Weickert said the fraud allegations included cars sold in the US, with the exception of certain variants of the Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg. It also includes certain vehicles that were sold in Germany to authorized retail dealers or to the VW leasing company.