The former Audi boss is the first former VW board member to confess to the diesel scandal.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich In the fraud process surrounding the emissions scandal at Audi, former CEO Rupert Stadler made a confession. However, Stadler did not speak himself in the hearing before the Munich Regional Court on Tuesday, but had his defense attorney Ulrike Thole-Groll read a statement. “I see for myself that more care would have been required,” said the lawyer on behalf of Stadler.
“I didn’t know that vehicles had been manipulated and buyers were harmed as a result, but I recognized it as possible and accepted it with approval.” When asked by judge Stefan Weickert whether he made the words his own, Stadler simply said : “Yes.”
This makes Stadler the first member of the VW Group Board of Management to have admitted in court to the allegation of fraud through omission in the diesel scandal. The Economic Criminal Court had promised the 60-year-old a suspended sentence if he made a comprehensive confession and paid 1.1 million euros.
Diesel scandal: Rupert Stadler had protested his innocence for years
The public prosecutor’s office has already approved the arrangement proposed by the court. Stadler had announced his confession at the beginning of May, but stipulated that he had time to prepare. Now he made his announcement come true.
The ex-Audi boss and former VW board member had protested his innocence for years and had initially not moved away from the process that had been going on for two and a half years. The turning point came at the end of March, when the court made it clear that Stadler would have faced imprisonment without a confession. Because according to the preliminary assessment of the chamber expressed at the time, Stadler should have recognized by July 2016 at the latest that the exhaust gas values could have been manipulated. Instead of getting to the bottom of the matter and informing the trading partners, he allowed the sale of the cars to continue until the beginning of 2018.
After the confession, the process, which has been ongoing since September 2020, could soon come to an end – probably in June. The accused former head of Audi engine development, Wolfgang Hatz, and two of his senior engineers have already confessed that they had initiated the design of the engine software.
With impermissible defeat devices, the cars did comply with the nitrogen oxide limit values on the test bench, but not on the road. According to the court, Hatz and an engineer can also count on probation. The proceedings against the other engineer have already been discontinued against a payment of money.
More: Ex-Audi boss Stadler ready to confess in the diesel scandal