It was the scandal that followed the actual scandal: in 2015, the manipulation of emissions values at Volkswagen became public. Despite all commitments to clean the slate, the fraud continued at least until 2018 at Audi. In Ingolstadt they were sure they wouldn’t get caught – and they were wrong. This had serious consequences for the then Audi boss Rupert Stadler, because he was imprisoned for it. After years of protesting his innocence, he now wants to make a confession and uncover his part in the fraud.
prospect of parole
Stadler agrees to the court’s proposal for an agreement, said his defense attorney Thilo Pfordte in front of the Munich Regional Court. The Economic Criminal Court had promised Stadler a suspended sentence if he made a comprehensive confession and paid 1.1 million euros. The public prosecutor’s office also agreed with the court’s proposal. The presiding judge, Stefan Weickert, found that an agreement had been reached. Stadler wants to present the confession to the court in two weeks, as his defense attorney said. The verdict is not to be expected before Pentecost, said Weickert.
protested innocence
Stadler had protested his innocence for years and had not moved away from the process, which had been going on for two and a half years. According to the preliminary assessment of the Economic Criminal Court, he 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.
Therefore, a prison sentence for fraud by omission comes into consideration, with a comprehensive confession and payment of 1.1 million euros also on probation. After the agreement, the court wants to sentence Stadler to between one and a half and two years in prison. The probationary period will then be three years, Weickert announced. The fine is to be paid to charitable organizations.
The former head of Audi engine development, Wolfgang Hatz, and two of his senior engineers had already confessed to initiating 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. Among other things, Audi wanted to save themselves the subsequent installation of larger Adblue tanks for exhaust aftertreatment after they had previously miscalculated.
Payment to Volkswagen
Rupert Stadler became head of Audi in 2007, succeeding Martin Winterkorn, who was moving to the top of the Volkswagen group at the time. From June 2018, Stadler was held in custody in Augsburg for four months due to the risk of collusion, until he resigned as Audi boss and Volkswagen board member. He had already reached a civil settlement with the Volkswagen Group and paid 4.1 million euros to his former employer for breach of duty. The case against three co-defendants was dropped in April 2023.
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