D he most prominent accused in the exhaust scandal must continue to spend the weekend in custody: a dismissal of Rupert Stadler , the now-retired CEO of Audi, who was arrested on Monday in Ingolstadt, is not foreseeable. According to information of F.A.Z. this may be related to the behavior of the 55-year-old Stadler.
Contrary to his initially expressed intentions, he does not appear to cooperate fully with the public prosecutor’s office Munich II in the interrogations. The investigators are dissatisfied. This is the conclusion of the hearing last Wednesday in the correctional facility in Augsburg-Gablingen, attended by Stadler’s defense lawyer Thilo Pfordte.
The admission must, given limited knowledge, have been sobering for the prosecutors. The testimony should not have been conducive to a necessary basis of trust in order to release Stadler again. A spokeswoman for the prosecution Munich II did not provide information on the course of the interrogation. But: “There is currently no new interrogation date has been set,” she said on request. Stadler should therefore be in custody even longer.
Set for further penalties
Against him and another Audi executive committee is determined because of the charge of the fraud and the indirect false certification. The arrest warrant issued against him relies on a danger of blackout; In the opinion of an investigating judge, this was because Stadler could have removed evidence or influenced witnesses and other accused persons. This is justified by the prosecutors with intercepted phone calls, which have resulted in concrete evidence. A quick release comes only in question if the reason for the danger of blackout is eliminated.
However, this would require extensive information on the alleged exhaust gas manipulation of diesel engines. According to information of F.A.Z. Defense lawyer Pfordte has not filed a request for detention. This is an indication of the difficult starting position: The experienced lawyer would dare the push only if the test has a chance of success. Once rejected, Pfordte can make a new application for his client at the earliest after three months.
In addition, sees himself Audi – as before Volkswagen – faced with a possible fine payment in an administrative offense. The spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office Munich II confirmed that the ongoing fine proceedings would be prosecuted in addition to the investigations against former and current board members, including Stadler. “The process is not near completion,” she said. An Audi spokesman commented on the facts with a view to the investigation. From the VW Group it said on Friday only, one was “on further fines from Munich and Stuttgart set.”
1.5 million euro compensation for leniency
But it could take months to reach a decision. For in Munich the prosecutors initiated the proceedings later than in Braunschweig; in Stuttgart it concerns the engines supplied by Porsche to Porsche. VW had last paid a fine of one billion euros – their use and distribution is currently debated vigorously among the finance ministers of the countries.
As far as it is in the case of Audi not: anyway, the tax base seems to be much lower. The VW subsidiary should receive a considerable double-digit million amount as a fine. It could be based on the approximately 200,000 vehicles that drive a V6 3-liter diesel engine and are affected by a recall in Europe. There are also about 85,000 manipulated diesel vehicles sold in the United States. The final number is not fixed yet.
By comparison, the figure used by the prosecutor Braunschweig for VW amounted to about 10.7 million vehicles. The framework is at the discretion of the Munich investigators, who do not have to be guided by the ratings of their Brunswick colleagues. This also applies to the fixed amount of fines for VW of 93 euros per car sold – in the case of Audi, he should be larger because of the sales prices of the vehicles and the margins achieved.
There is also news in the case of Giovanni P., the prosecution witness. As reported in parts of our edition of Friday, the engine developer received a compensation of 1.5 million euros from his former employer. P. had filed against his termination without notice at the Labor Court Munich. Instead of a public trial but now the payment was announced to him, based on an agreement between him and Audi from the end of 2017.
The explosive: As usual, such a contract contains a silence clause, P. is therefore likely to comment neither on his work as a senior engineer nor a possible involvement in the exhaust gas fraud. The million payment is not a hush, it says from group circles. In any case, P. should have unpacked before the signing to the investigators. In pre-trial detention in Munich-Stadelheim P. should have burdened many managers of Audi – up to the top of the group to Rupert Stadler.