The former Audi boss was in court in Munich.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich In the Volkswagen emissions scandal, former Audi boss Rupert Stadler was the first top manager to be convicted of fraud. Stadler will receive a suspended sentence of one year and nine months, the Munich Regional Court announced on Tuesday.
This left the criminal division in the middle of the one-and-a-half to two-year period already agreed with Stadler and the public prosecutor. The 60-year-old had to pay the 60-year-old part of the agreed payment of 1.1 million euros to the state treasury and part to several non-profit organizations.
For the two co-accused, the court also imposed suspended sentences and fines in the magnitude already promised. For the former Head of Audi Engines and later Porsche Board Member Wolfgang Hatz, it is two years and 400,000 euros, for the engineer Giovanni P. one year and nine months and 50,000 euros.
Audi trial: defendants had confessed
The Munich trial is one of the most prominent trials in the 2015 scandal about millions of emissions manipulations in the Volkswagen Group, in which Audi played a crucial role. Stadler is the first former member of the Volkswagen Group board to be convicted.
After more than two and a half years of trial, the court proposed a deal to the accused in March: If there were confessions, there would be suspended sentences with monetary conditions, then nobody would have to go to prison. The three men then fully admitted the allegations.
The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a prison sentence of three years and two months without parole for the former head of Audi engine development.
(Photo: dpa)
Hatz and the engineer confessed to having manipulated engines. According to the indictment, legal exhaust gas values were met on the test bench, but not on the road. Stadler, on the other hand, is not accused of any active manipulation. After the scandal broke in the USA, however, he is said to have failed to stop the sale of the manipulated cars in Germany. Stadler has admitted this for its part.
In the case of Stadler and the engineer, the public prosecutor’s office supported the deals. In the case of former Audi engine manager and later Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz, however, the public prosecutor’s office blocked the court’s proposal and demanded a prison sentence of three years and two months. The judgment is not final. The public prosecutor’s office as well as all the accused can appeal until next Tuesday.
The presiding judge, Stefan Weickert, is still reading out the verdict with a detailed explanation. According to a spokesman, the court scheduled several hours into the afternoon for this.
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