Bad start for suspects in the VW Diesel trial: judge intensifies charges

Braunschweig With the trial against several Volkswagen employees before the Braunschweig Regional Court, the criminal investigation of one of the largest German economic scandals has begun. Senior Public Prosecutor Elke Hoppenworth accused the four partly former managers and engineers of the formation of a “gang for the continued commission of crimes” when the indictment (Az: 6 KLs 23/19) was read out at the start of the trial on Thursday.

“As executives, you are responsible for ensuring that the software was used to deceive the authorities about compliance with the emission limits of VW diesel engines,” said Hoppenworth.

The proceedings against the former CEO Martin Winterkorn, who resigned a few days after the scandal became known in September 2015, is being negotiated separately because of his health. The 74-year-old is not yet able to negotiate after a hip operation.

The public prosecutor’s office lodged a complaint with the Higher Regional Court against the separate hearing. The process was originally supposed to start in February 2021, but the start of the process had to be postponed several times due to the corona pandemic.

The prosecutor is convinced that the defendants knew of the millions of diesel manipulations. They are said to have helped develop the illegal defeat device or not intervened against it. Their goal was to provide the company with the highest possible profits in order to benefit from high bonus payments.

It is clear to the public prosecutor that Winterkorn could not excuse himself by saying that he had only heard of irregularities and – in retrospect – probably underestimated them. After scientists in the USA had discovered the hustle and bustle in 2014, the note from a confidante in the boss’s “weekend mail” was relatively clear.

He was told that cars exceeded permissible limits by up to 35 times. According to the prosecutors, Winterkorn took note of this. But: “He decided against disclosure and hoped to keep the legal violations secret.”

“Don’t get caught!”

When US supervisors increasingly insisted on answers, the “defeat device” was directly addressed at a manager meeting, the so-called “damage table”, at the end of July 2015 at the latest. Winterkorn had telephoned the confidante – as well as a high-ranking VW manager – in preparation. This told him: “We shit.”

In the meeting, the extent of the threat of fines for 500,000 manipulated vehicles in the United States was discussed. The “feared outburst of anger” Winterkorn failed to materialize. A senior developer who was also accused then remarked: “Shit, went completely wrong.”

The origin of what is probably the largest German industrial scandal goes back further. VW wanted to catch up with the competition in the USA, and the diesel, which is still not widely used there, should help. Then a series of obfuscations around the software trick started.

According to the public prosecutor, Hanno Jelden, co-accused long-time drive technology expert, is said to have played a central role in the design of the software from 2006 onwards. As a safeguard, he wanted to obtain the approval of a supervisor. The mission was approved: “Don’t get caught!” All participants in a meeting that year were aware that the planned US diesel engine would not meet the limit values ​​without test detection.
In the course of time, others were also “in the picture about the entire situation”. Heinz-Jakob Neußer, former head of development of the core brand VW, Jens H., a main department head for diesel engine development, and D., a department head for diesel exhaust gas cleaning, are also on trial. The latter is said to have admitted the deceptions to the US authorities – contrary to instructions from Wolfsburg – and helped with the clarification, said his defender in a statement at the beginning of the process. Neusser’s defense lawyer did not want to comment on the Handelsblatt request before the start of the trial, but requested that the proceedings be suspended in the afternoon, among other things because numerous key points had not been identified. In the coming week, the defense attorneys von Jelden and H. will also comment – so far they have largely or completely rejected the accusations made by the public prosecutors against their clients. The defendants will then also speak out afterwards.

Up to ten years imprisonment

How tight it can get for the defendants can be guessed by the decision of the court, with which the indictment allowed it last year. The sixth large criminal chamber around the presiding judge Christian Schütz had partially aggravated the accusations of the public prosecutor: Instead of the accusation of serious fraud made by the public prosecutor, the judges even hold a sufficient suspicion that Winterkorn and other managers have formed a gang for this.

It could also be considered that the defendants could not have acted as accomplices but as secondary perpetrators, the decision said. This would give them greater personal responsibility when committing criminal offenses. In the most extreme case, the defendants face prison sentences of up to ten years.

The highest-ranking defendant is Heinz-Jakob Neußer, the former Chief Development Officer of the Volkswagen brand. Neusser has so far been the only member of the quartet who has not been heard by the public prosecutor. The public prosecutor’s office accuses Neusser of having been informed of the manipulations shortly after starting his job as engine manager developer at the end of 2011. Instead of stopping the fraud, Neusser was responsible for the continued use of the shutdown software, which ensured that the diesel engines complied with the emission standards on the test bench, but not in road use.

“I didn’t tell the US authorities everything I knew”

Actors and confidants are said to have gone even further: the software soon also recognized whether someone was behind the wheel after mistakenly registering the test mode on long motorway journeys – clogged particle filters were the result. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the sentence was said in one round: “If we’re screwing up, we’ll do it right.” And these manipulations were also covered. Neuss arranged for the illegal function to be expanded.

In coming to terms with the diesel scandal, the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office has so far raised four fraud charges against a total of more than 30 VW managers and engineers. Another 80 or so people are still being investigated. For a year now, the former Audi boss Rupert Stadler and three other managers of the Ingolstadt-based VW subsidiary have had to answer in a similar procedure before the Munich Regional Court.

A few days before the start of the Braunschweig trial, an ex-manager first spoke about his involvement in the affair in a TV interview. The former head of VW’s environmental bureau in the USA told NDR: “I did not tell the US authorities everything I knew. That was my undoing. “

In the summer of 2015, he was commissioned to negotiate with the US environmental authorities. He should not use certain words such as “Defeat Device” to describe the software function in exhaust gas treatment.

The engineer was arrested by US investigators on vacation at Miami Airport in early 2017 and sentenced to seven years in prison. It was delivered to Germany last year. His arrest was for other managers who are wanted by the US authorities for “Dieselgate” as a warning not to travel abroad.

The scandal was exposed on September 18, 2015 by the American environmental agency EPA. The agency threatened the German group with a fine of up to 18 billion dollars for violating US environmental laws. This was preceded by lengthy examinations and tests with VW diesel cars in the USA, until experts finally tracked down the fraudulent software in the engine management system.

This ensured that the engines adhered to the nitrogen oxide limit values ​​on the test bench, but emitted many times more of these toxic exhaust gases on the road. The diesel scandal is a financial disaster for Volkswagen. So far, reparations have cost Volkswagen more than 32 billion euros, mainly fines and compensation payments in the USA.

On September 20, 2015, Winterkorn then admitted the deceptions. Total damage through the interaction of the five over all the years according to the indictment: over 230 billion euros. Civil proceedings are still pending elsewhere, and on Thursday the Federal Court of Justice dismissed, for example, complaints from diesel customers for the repayment of leasing installments as a rule.

An end to the financial burdens is not in sight for the group. Damage claims from diesel owners are still pending worldwide. In addition, investors want to enforce compensation for price losses suffered as a result of the diesel scandal before the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court. The total of the claims is around nine billion euros.

More: Trial against ex-VW boss Winterkorn will probably be postponed again