Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the “dieselgate” case, becoming the first Volkswagen Group executive to bear criminal responsibility in the global diesel engine rigging scandal.
The former boss of the firm with the rings between 2007 and 2018, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, is the main defendant in the trial which has been held for two and a half years before the Munich court.
While he had so far disputed the allegations, Mr. Stadler, 60, admitted on Tuesday that he had “accepted” that vehicles were sold with unauthorized software and had “failed” to inform the partners. of Volkswagen, according to the short statement read by his lawyer Ulrike Thole-Groll.
Asked in stride, Rupert Stadler, wearing dark blue suit and open collar shirt, confirmed with a laconic “yes” the words read.
Indicted in 2018, he has been on trial since September 2020 alongside other former Volkswagen executives and had always stuck to the same line of defense: he had been duped by his technicians.
But negotiations with the Munich court changed the situation a few weeks ago: Rupert Stadler had agreed to plead guilty, to receive in exchange for a lesser sentence than the ten years in prison incurred.
Fraud by omission
Mr. Stadler, a trained financier, is not accused of being the instigator of the fraud but of having had knowledge of the installation of illegal software and of having done nothing to put an end to it.
This should earn him a conviction for “fraud by omission”.
The accused “regretted” not having “been able to resolve the crisis” linked to the rigged engines and therefore agrees to bear criminal responsibility, according to his lawyer.
Mr Stadler knew by July 2016 at the latest that the emission values of diesel cars could be manipulated, but let the marketing continue until early 2018, the prosecution accuses him.
The former CEO should be sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of up to two years and pay a fine of 1.1 million euros, if the court’s proposal is validated.
He accepted the guilty plea just like the two other defendants at trial: a former director at Audi and Porsche, Wolfgang Hatz, and an Audi engineer, Giovanni Pamio.
The court is expected to render its judgment at the end of June.
Global scandal
In 2015, following accusations from the US Environmental Agency (EPA), Volkswagen admitted to having equipped 11 million of its diesel vehicles with software capable of making them appear less polluting during laboratory tests and on roads.
The “dieselgate” caused a worldwide scandal and heavily tarnished the reputation of the German automobile industry.
The Volkswagen group has since had to pay more than 30 billion euros in reimbursements, damages and legal costs, the largest of which in the United States.
While many legal aspects of the scandal remain open, the Munich trial is the most prominent. Its epilogue is likely to leave a taste of unfinished, regret observers.
“A gigantic economic scandal, millions of customers deceived worldwide, billions of euros in fines for the company – and the only senior leader tried so far gets off with such a lenient sentence? asks the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday.
Who started the fraud? Who supported her? Which Volkswagen executives knew? All the answers have not yet been provided.
Another major criminal trial opened in September 2021, involving four former Volkswagen managers accused of fraud, is underway in the Brunswick court (north), not far from the manufacturer’s historic headquarters.
But this trial is being held for the moment without its main defendant, the former CEO of the first European manufacturer at the time of the scandal, Martin Winterkorn, exempt from hearing for medical reasons.
Investors are also claiming legal compensation, while the title of Volkswagen had collapsed by some 40% in the days following the outbreak of the scandal.
In France, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed in March the indictment for aggravated deception of Volkswagen. The German is not alone here, the manufacturers Renault, Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler having also been indicted in mid-2021.