Munich (Reuters) - In the criminal proceedings surrounding the emissions scandal at Audi, the public prosecutor's office wants to send a former high-ranking manager of the Volkswagen Group to prison.
The former Audi engine boss and later Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz should receive a prison sentence of three years and two months, said public prosecutor Nico Petzka in his plea before the Munich Regional Court on Tuesday. Hatz was jointly responsible for damage of 2.2 billion euros to almost 95,000 manipulated cars of the Audi and VW brands. The 64-year-old was therefore guilty of serious fraud. The Audi manager had been promoted to Chief Development Officer of sister brand Porsche before the emissions manipulation scandal came to light.
Petzka demanded a suspended sentence of two years for the co-defendant former Audi boss Rupert Stadler, thus clarifying earlier statements. The public prosecutor's office and the court had already stated that Stadler and the third defendant, an engineer, should receive suspended sentences of one and a half to two years due to their confessions. They are also to pay fines, Stadler 1.1 million euros and the engineer 50,000 euros. For the engineer, the public prosecutor demanded a suspended sentence of two years on Tuesday.
Hatz had also made a confession. However, because this only happened after two and a half years of the trial and because of Hatz's role in the manipulations, a suspended sentence was not appropriate, said the public prosecutor.
The Munich trial is one of the most prominent proceedings in the scandal surrounding millions of emissions manipulations in the Volkswagen Group, which came to light in 2015 and in which Audi played a decisive role. Stadler was at the helm of the Volkswagen subsidiary until 2018. Since 2020, he has been on trial together with the two co-defendants. The criminal chamber will hand down its verdict on June 27.
Hatz and the engineer have confessed to manipulating engines. According to the indictment, legal emission values were complied with on the test bench but not on the road. Stadler, on the other hand, is not accused of active manipulation. After the scandal came to light in the USA, he allegedly failed to stop the sale of the manipulated cars in Germany. For his part, the manager has confessed to this.
While the total damage in the Volkswagen diesel scandal is in the billions, Stadler is only responsible for 69 million euros, according to the public prosecutor's office. This corresponds to the reduction in value of 26,546 cars sold in Germany, said Petzka. Hatz and the engineer, on the other hand, had caused damage of 2.2 billion euros to 94,924 vehicles. The sum was also significantly higher than Stadler's because it mainly involved cars sold in the USA. Due to the legal situation there, the cars only had scrap value. In Germany, on the other hand, the manipulations were allowed to be rectified through software updates, which only reduced the value of the vehicles there.
Petzka conceded that Stadler and his two co-defendants "each made significant contributions to the overall events in very responsible positions, but nevertheless cannot be regarded as the main culprits." It seemed doubtful whether there could be one person with primary criminal responsibility in a "large and complex" company like Audi "when so many people involved in the company are going in the wrong direction".
(Report by Jörn Poltz; Edited by Scot W. Stevenson; If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)
