The pressure is increasing on Rupert Stadler, the boss of the Audi brand. The man is now directly in the crosshairs of the German justice under the “dieselgate”.
The Munich prosecutor’s office announced on Monday that it suspected the 55-year-old Bavarian leader of “fraud” and “false certification” related to the marketing of diesel engines with rigged engines in Europe.
The German court has been investigating for months the handling of the Bavarian brand, while its parent Volkswagen admitted more than two years ago rigged eleven million vehicles around the world to distort anti-doping tests. pollution.
Housing raided
The prosecutor’s office also announced Monday the search of the home of Rupert Stadler and that of a member of the board of the brand without disclosing his identity. The investigators, who have been invited to the premises of the Ingolstadt group on a number of occasions, are now targeting 20 people on this file.
The brand with the rings, which reacted Monday declaring “to co-operate fully with the authorities”, had in particular acknowledged at the beginning of May to have detected “anomalies” about the software that equips the diesel engines of about 60.000 models A6 and A7 in the world.
Promotion
The news weakens Rupert Stadler, who has led Audi since 2007, before the scandal that led to the resignation of Volkswagen group boss Martin Winterkorn in September 2015.
Criticized for his handling of the scandal, Rupert Stadler had saved his head last summer when a major overhaul of the brand’s executive board , before being promoted in April during the great redesign of the group decided by the new head of the twelve-brand empire, Herbert Diess.
Leading the group’s sales as well as the new “Premium” division, which oversees Audi, Rupert Stadler is one of the group’s strongmen with Oliver Blume at the helm of the “Super Premium” division (Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini ). Hebert Diess oversees the “Volume” division (Volkswagen, Skoda, Seat, commercial vehicles).
Daimler summoned to Berlin
The news comes as Dieter Zetsche, leader of Daimler-Mercedes, is summoned to Berlin on Monday by Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU).
This is the second time in two weeks that the Ministry formally requests accounts to the leader of the Stuttgart manufacturer, who in turn accused him of having installed rigging software on certain vehicles.