Disgraced Porsche Managers Indicted For Stock Manipulation
Wendelin Wiedeking, former Porsche CEO turned pizza baker, will have to defend himself in criminal court. Along with his former CFO Holger Härter, Wiedeking has been indicted in Stuttgart. This follows a three year probe by the public prosecutor in Stuttgart which had been looking into market manipulation and illegal disclosure of insider information. Only the market manipulation charge survived.
According to Germany’s Automobilwoche [sub], the two are being accused of having made “false statements in relationship with the stock purchase of Volkswagen AG.” Their takeover ploy had propelled Volkswagen’s stock to stratospheric heights. When the stock returned back to earth, Porsche was nearly suffocated by a mountain of debt. Takeover target Volkswagen turned the table and swallowed Porsche.
If found guilty, Wiedeking and Härter could spend up to five years in jail.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Your 2008 story "How Porsche NSFWed the Hedge Funds" is coming full circle. By the way, that story is what I credit for TTAC becoming my favorite automotive site. At the time, I was telling everyone that would listen that Porsche, then the world's most profitable automaker, was a hedge fund that happened to make cars. I thought it was pretty comical to see the company beat the hedge funds at their own game. Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, though, the fund guys will get the last laugh.
This guy looks like he could be the new Alfred E. Neuman; "What, me worry?"
This will provide more ammo for the law suits the affected hedge funds are bringing against Porsche (and now VW). This will take years and likely hurt VW.
Amazing it took this long.