Ex-Audi CEO Rupert Stadler is Tuesday expected to be convicted and sentenced over the “dieselgate” scandal, the highest-ranking former executive to be punished over the emissions cheating controversy that rocked the car industry.<\/p>\n
He confessed last month to his role in the saga but, as part of a plea deal, is expected to avoid jail time and instead face a hefty fine and suspended sentence.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old admitted he allowed vehicles equipped with manipulating software to remain on sale even after learning of the scam.<\/p>\n
German car giant Volkswagen — whose subsidiaries include Porsche, Audi, Skoda and Seat — plunged into crisis after admitting in September 2015 that it had installed software to rig emission levels in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.<\/p>\n
The so-called defeat devices made the vehicles appear less polluting in lab tests than they were on the road.<\/p>\n
Throughout his trial, which started in 2020, Stadler had denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
But last month at a Munich district court, his lawyer said that Stadler “neglected” to inform business partners that cars with so-called defeat devices were still going on the market.<\/p>\n
His defence team have previously said that under the plea deal, he will face a suspended sentence of up to two years, and will make a payment of 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million).<\/p>\n
Volkswagen had always insisted that the diesel trickery was the work of a handful of lower-level employees acting without the knowledge of their superiors.<\/p>\n
Stadler himself was not accused of instigating the scam.
\n– Massive scandal –<\/p>\n
But German prosecutors say Stadler knew about the scheme by July 2016 at the latest and nevertheless allowed thousands more vehicles with defeat devices to be sold until early 2018.<\/p>\n
By admitting that he failed to intervene, Stadler faces a conviction for fraud by negligence.<\/p>\n
Stadler had been Audi’s chief executive for 11 years when he was arrested in 2018. He was also a member of the management board at Volkswagen group.<\/p>\n
He spent four months in pre-trial detention owing to prosecution concerns that he would try to influence witnesses.<\/p>\n
Also on Tuesday the court will deliver its verdict in the case of co-defendant Wolfgang Hatz, a former Audi and Porsche manager, who pleaded guilty in April.<\/p>\n
Hatz, who at one point was head of engine development at Audi, admitted that he helped arrange the installation of emissions-cheating software.<\/p>\n
An Audi engineer who previously confessed will also be sentenced.<\/p>\n
Volkswagen’s former CEO Martin Winterkorn was also supposed to stand trial for fraud over the scandal, but his case has been indefinitely postponed due to his poor health.<\/p>\n
The “dieselgate” saga shocked Germany and is seen as the country’s biggest post-war industrial scandal.<\/p>\n
It has already cost VW tens of billions of euros in fines, legal costs and compensation to car owners, mainly in the United States.<\/p>\n
The fallout has also accelerated development of environmentally-friendly electric vehicles, requiring huge investments in a tough economic climate.<\/p>\n
( BSS\/AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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