Wolfgang Hatz
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the former Audi engine manager and later Porsche board member is jointly responsible for damage of 2.2 billion euros to almost 95,000 manipulated cars.
(Photo: dpa)
In the criminal proceedings surrounding the emissions scandal at Audi, the public prosecutor wants to send a former high-ranking manager of the Volkswagen Group to prison. The former Audi engine boss and later Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz should receive a prison sentence of three years and two months, said public prosecutor Nico Petzka on Tuesday in his plea before the Munich district court.
Hatz is jointly responsible for damage of 2.2 billion euros to almost 95,000 manipulated Audi and VW cars. The 64-year-old was guilty of serious fraud. The Audi manager had been promoted to the development board of sister brand Porsche before the emissions manipulation scandal broke.
For the co-accused ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler, Petzka called for a suspended sentence of two years and thus specified earlier statements. Prosecutors and the court had already stated that Stadler and the third accused, an engineer, should receive suspended sentences of one and a half to two years because of their confessions.
Rupert Stadler
The public prosecutor demanded a suspended sentence of two years for the accused ex-Audi boss.
(Photo: Getty Images)
They should also pay monetary conditions, Stadler 1.1 million and the engineer 50,000 euros. The public prosecutor demanded a suspended sentence of two years for the engineer on Tuesday.
Hatz had also made a confession. Because this only happened after two and a half years of trial and because of Hatz’s role in the manipulations, a suspended sentence is not appropriate, said the prosecutor.
The Munich trial is one of the most prominent trials in the 2015 scandal about millions of emissions manipulations in the Volkswagen Group, in which Audi played a crucial role. Stadler headed the Volkswagen subsidiary until 2018. Since 2020 he has had to answer in court together with the two co-defendants. The criminal court wants to make its verdict on June 27th.
Rupert Stadler is said to be responsible for only 69 million euros in damage
Hatz and the engineer 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. After the scandal broke in the USA, he is said to have failed to stop the sale of the manipulated cars in Germany. The manager himself has confessed to this.
While the total damage in the Volkswagen diesel scandal is in the billions, according to the public prosecutor’s office, Stadler is only responsible for 69 million euros. That corresponds to the depreciation of 26,546 cars that were sold in Germany, said Petzka. Hatz and the engineer, on the other hand, caused damage of 2.2 billion euros to 94,924 vehicles.
The sum is also significantly higher than at Stadler because it is mainly about cars that were sold in the USA. Due to the legal situation there, the cars were only worth scrap. In Germany, on the other hand, the manipulations could be corrected with software updates, which only reduced the vehicle values there.
Petzka admitted that Stadler and his two co-defendants “although each made significant contributions to the overall situation in very responsible positions, they can probably not be regarded as those primarily responsible.” It seems doubtful whether it was in a “large and complex” company how Audi could give a person primarily responsible under criminal law “when so many people involved in the company are going in the wrong direction”.
More: “I accepted it with approval”: Former Audi boss Stadler makes a confession
First publication: 06/13/2023, 4:22 p.m.