The diesel scandal splits the auto suppliers.
Image: dpa
Entanglements in the diesel scandal are a case for the public prosecutor. One accusation: Conti engineers are said to have developed a prohibited defeat device together with VW. Charges will soon be filed.
In the fall of 2015, when the Volkswagen Group was shaken by the diesel scandal, nervousness also grew in Continental management. Because the engine control for the manipulated 1.6-liter diesel engines in Europe came from the automotive supplier from Hanover. “Is everything clean with us?” Chief supervisor Wolfgang Reitzle is said to have asked his then board of directors about the chairman Elmar Degenhart. Seven years later, an internal investigation commissioned by the board of directors of the law firm Noerr has become a detonator for Continental and the now also listed car supplier Vitesco, the former powertrain division based in Regensburg. It’s about a lot of money and the question of who knew what about the diesel machinations in Lower Saxony and Bavaria and when.
The public prosecutor’s office in Hanover has been interested in the case for two years. She has long been investigating 61 suspects, including Degenhart and three other former Conti board members. So far, the head of the supervisory board, Reitzle, has only been questioned as a witness. He sees himself deceived by his long-time companions, who are said to have concealed from him the true extent of Conti’s involvement in the diesel scandal – according to his statement to the public prosecutor’s office. The prosecutors, led by senior public prosecutor Malte Rabe von Kühlewein, have collected 90 terabytes of data. Those involved in the proceedings estimate that an indictment is only a matter of time.