Probing Continues at Volkswagen, Continental

German prosecutors have incorporated Continental into a probe aimed at determining whether Volkswagen Group cheated on emissions testing. While confessing to the crime in the United States years earlier is a fairly good indication of corporate guilt, Germany wants to make extra sure VW was in the wrong and has branched out its investigation to include suppliers that may have played a role.

On Wednesday, the automaker acknowledged it had been subjected to yet another probe after investigators arrived to comb through its offices. The same treatment was given to supplier Continental, which is suspected of having some sort of involvement in a scandal the automotive industry can’t quite seem to move on from.

Local authorities stated that 76 police officers, led by 4 investigators, flipped facilities in Hanover, Regensburg, Wolfsburg, Gifhorn, Berlin, Frankfurt and Nuernberg to determine how VW’s 1.6-liter diesel engine managed to circumvent testing requirements and pollute at greater-then-allowed levels once they hit the road.

Volkswagen, which has already settled in Brunswick after offering initial pushback in 2019, claimed it was only serving as a helpful observer this time. Still, there exists loads of pending litigation, as well as other municipalities that would love to fine it. Hanover prosecutors are among that group, and still have an open investigation into VW — though they admit the focus in the latest probe is the supplier.

“We are investigating employees of Continental for abetting fraud and for providing false documentation,” Prosecutor Oliver Eisenhauer told Reuters in a statement, noting that numerous engineers and a couple of project leaders are among the accused. A compliance officer and other executives were said to be helping with the investigation.

Will this be the event that finally settles things in Deutschland? We sincerely doubt it. Despite German authorities showing a willingness to investigate anything and everything, Dieselgate seems unabating. If you think the wheels of justice move slow here, then you haven’t followed our rolling reports of the diesel-relating probing going down in Germany. At their current rate of progress, they’ll be hunting for dirty executives and corporate accomplices long after we’re dead and buried.

Yet things haven’t exactly wrapped in the United States, either.

Last month, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that some counties would be eligible to continue bringing civil suits to Volkswagen’s door. Other countries have taken similar action, leaving the automaker to offer its best defense on countless fronts before offering the obligatory settlement deal. There’s not much else it can do when its best counter argument involves acting like this was all an accident — especially since it already confessed to the crime half a decade ago.

[Image: Gyuszko-Photo/Shutterstock]