September 18, 2015 was a fateful day for Volkswagen. Just before the weekend, the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent out a “notification of a violation,” according to official English. Volkswagen is said to have sold 500,000 “illegal motor vehicles” in the United States. Each of these could result in a possible fine of $37,500. While still on their sofas, the 600,000 Volkswagen employees were able to calculate the risk: 18.5 billion dollars.
Martin Winterkorn resigned five days later. The once all-powerful CEO of Volkswagen protested that he knew nothing about the scandal that shook his group. Manipulated diesel engines, fraudulent software, fake exhaust gas values? Winterkorn was completely clueless.
In this episode of Handelsblatt Crime, Ina Karabasz, investigative director Sönke Iwersen and auto reporter Stefan Menzel talk about the background of the biggest scandal in the German vehicle industry. Why did Volkswagen decide to circumvent environmental regulations? Who made money? And who were the accomplices?
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Dieselgate is a scandal with insane details. “Don’t get caught,” said a VW manager back in 2006. “My assessment: we won’t make it without cheating,” wrote an Audi engineer in 2008. When the Americans asked Volkswagen to disclose the software for the engine control, he did after the manipulation had been implemented, a programmer reassured his superiors: “The code is so well hidden that nobody will find it anyway.”
Then they found him. VW employees were arrested, and the group’s partners and helpers were drawn into the maelstrom. The diesel scandal has already cost Volkswagen 32 billion euros. The last invoice has not yet been written.
Handelsblatt Crime appears every 14 days and can be heard wherever there are podcasts.
More: You can hear the last episode of Handelsblatt Crime here