In the billionaire Volkswagen-Diesel scandal is the earlier one AudiAccording to the public prosecutor, boss Rupert Stadler (60) is responsible for damage of only 69 million euros. This corresponds to the damage caused to 26,546 vehicles by exhaust gas manipulation, said public prosecutor Nico Petzka on Tuesday in his plea before the Munich Regional Court. The two accused former subordinates of Stadler, however, would have caused billions in damage. That was the result of the taking of evidence in the fraud process that has been going on for two and a half years.
The Munich trial is one of the most prominent court cases in the 2015 scandal about millions of emissions manipulations in the Volkswagen Group. Stadler headed the Volkswagen subsidiary Audi until 2018. Since 2020 he has been sitting with the former Audi engine boss and Porsche-Head of Development Wolfgang Hatz (64) and an engineer in the dock.
Hatz and the engineer caused damage of 2.2 billion euros by manipulating 94,924 vehicles, Petzka said on Tuesday. According to earlier information from the court, the damage caused by Hatz and the engineer is also significantly higher than at Stadler because it is mainly about cars that are in the USA were sold. Due to the legal situation there, the manipulated cars were considered a total loss in the US market, while the manipulations in Germany could be remedied by software updates.
Stadler’s co-defendants have confessed to having manipulated engines. According to the indictment, legal exhaust gas values were met on the test bench, but not on the road. Stadler, on the other hand, is not accused of any active manipulation. He is only accused of failing to stop the sale of the manipulated cars after the scandal broke. The manager has also confessed to this accusation.
The court promised Stadler and the engineer suspended sentences of one and a half to two years for their confessions. While the public prosecutor’s office approved this deal, they insisted on a prison sentence for Hatz. Petzka announced on Tuesday that he would make his demands for punishment at the end of his plea, which lasted several hours. On June 27, the court wants to make the verdict.