Martin Winterkorn
(Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)
Detroit — Former Volkswagen AG CEO Martin Winterkorn and five other former VW executives have been federally charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States to commit wire fraud and to violate the Clean Air Act.
The criminal indictment of the former VW CEO, who resigned in September 2015, makes him the highest-ranking official of Germany’s No. 1 automaker to be charged in what has become a global diesel emissions scandal.
“The indictment unsealed today alleges that Volkswagen’s scheme to cheat its legal requirements when all the way to the top of the company,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “These are serious allegations and we’ll prosecute this case to the full extent of the law.”
U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneide of the Eastern District of Michigan added: “Volkswagen deceived American regulators and defrauded American consumers for years. The fact that this criminal conduct was allegedly blessed at Volkswagen’s highest levels is appalling.”
The charges, dated March 14 but unsealed Thursday, came days before Reuters had reported German prosecutors said they had searched VW’s headquarters to investigate whether the automaker had overstated the fuel efficiency of more vehicles than previously disclosed.
Winterkorn was charged along with former VW executives Richard Dorenkamp, Heinz-Jakob Neusser, Jens Hadler, Bernd Gottweis and Juergen Peter were also charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States to commit wire fraud and to violate the Clean Air Act. Dorenkamp, Neusser and Peter were charged additional counts of violation of the Clean Air Act. Neusser, Gottweis, Peter and Winterkorn were charged with additional counts of wire fraud, according to court documents.
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