Charges against Ex-VW boss Winterkorn

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In the diesel scandal, the public Prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig has brought criminal charges against the former VW boss Martin Winterkorn. He is accused of major fraud. It is up to ten years in prison.

In addition to winter grain, four more persons were accused, informed the public Prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig on Monday. In addition to fraud, the prosecution authority accuses the executives, embezzlement, tax evasion and indirect false certification, as announced on Monday. The time of the crime area extended from the 15. November 2006 to 22. September 2015.

Winter grain, after the millions of diesel manipulation had resigned in September 2015, to throw the investigators of fraud in a particularly serious case, as well as a violation of the law against unfair competition, and breach of trust.

He had it since may 2014, and the unlawful manipulations of Diesel engines to the competent authorities in Europe and the United States disclose the further incorporation of defeat devices. According to prosecutors, the winter grain had also tried to conceal the fraud. In November 2014, he got a Software-Update, to cover up the real reason for the increased nitrogen oxide emissions in the daily operation of the diesel cars.

The names of the other managers are not called the prosecution and pointed to the presumption of innocence that applies to all of the accused. In the event of a conviction, sentences of between six months and ten years, threatening the accused.

Damage so far: 29 billion Euro

Martin Winterkorn was from 2007 to 2015 Chairman of the Board of Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker. He joined on the 23. September of this function, after the group had to concede to pressure from US authorities to have this illegal shutdown facilities in the case of exhaust emission tests for diesel vehicles cheated. As the diesel scandal widened, Winterkorn also his other Offices in the group, the Chairman of the management Board of the Volkswagen major shareholder, Porsche automobile holding SE and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen subsidiary Audi.

With an annual salary of around 17 million euros Winterkorn was in his active time, Germany’s best-paid Manager. Often the engineer boasted, to take care of the small Details of the car production. Nevertheless, Winterkorn claimed to have from the illegal shutdown of the facilities knew nothing.

The public Prosecutor assumes, that by the Exhaust gas of around nine million diesel vehicles of the brands Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda were sold, the are not allowed to drive on the road. The winter grain and the other accused Manager had obtained unauthorized bonuses of up to eleven million euros.

The damage to the German society was not limited to high pollutant emissions, the Prosecutor’s office. Buyers of diesel-powered vehicles in the group would also receive tax rebates of up to 150 Euro, if you bought one of the, according to the ads “the cleanest Diesel in its class”.

The work-up of the scandal has cost the Volkswagen group with around € 29 billion, including billion in fines in the United States and court costs.

Also, the SEC sued Winterkorn

In the U.S., Winterkorn is looking for for may 2018, per a warrant, he is accused of conspiracy to violate environmental laws and deception of the authorities. In the case of a conviction, a long prison sentence would be in danger. A delivery from Germany is, however, unlikely.

The US justice authorities had already presented criminal charges against a number of other employees of the VW group. Two of them, the engineer James Liang and the Manager, Oliver Schmidt, were met in August or in December 2017, to more years in prison and high fines sentenced.

In mid-March, the U.S. has sued the securities and exchange Commission SEC Volkswagen and winter grain. The accusation: The group should have collected during the exhaust gas scandal between April 2014 and may 2015, under false pretenses of more than 13 billion dollars (11.6 billion Euro) with bonds on the US capital market. Investors had been deceived about the time of the serious violations of U.S. environmental laws have been committed.

The winter grain had recently applied for a court hearing in San Francisco from 23. April 10. To move in may. In court, winter grain will not appear because of the arrest warrant in the United States.

The indictment of the Prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig is a total of 692 pages thick, with the addition of 300 volumes of documents with 75,000 pages of Evidence.

The Volkswagen group sees itself from the indictment, by the way, is not directly affected. The charge of standing “in connection with individual investigations against individuals, does not react to the Volkswagen AG,” said the group.

The company also pointed out that the criminal investigations in Germany against Volkswagen and its subsidiary Audi have been set according to the payment of the fine in the amount of one billion euros and 800 million euros.

bea/hb (dpa, rtr, afp)