Martin Winterkorn, Other Ex-VW Execs Face the Music in Germany
Former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn is one of five former Volkswagen executives who will be standing trial in a German court over their actions in the diesel emissions cheating scandal.
The five were charged in 2019 for using defeat devices to cheat emissions tests, but a court has modified the charges so that now the five could be charged as a criminal gang.
“The fraud charges concern 9 million vehicles sold in Europe and the U.S.,” the court said in a statement. “Buyers may have lost 100 million euros.”
The court also said that since the pollution levels of Volkswagen vehicles were higher than thought, they should’ve been hit with higher taxes, and because of that, the former execs should also face charges of tax evasion and false advertising.
A few other charges against Winterkorn, including breach of trust, were dropped.
The court’s judges did indicate to prosecutors that they were likely to reject demands to have the executives’ bonuses seized.
An attorney representing Winterkorn denied the charges. Volkswagen, for its part, reminds observers that it has new processes in place, it’s no longer in the prosecutorial crosshairs, and that said, the former execs are innocent until proven guilty.
The case is allowed to proceed, but a trial date is unclear.
[Image: Volkswagen]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Martin Winterkorn: *gang leader* "I wish that boy would have done something useful with his life." I guess all the raids produced some pretty strong evidence. In other news, the German auto press slammed the new ID.3 for various quality and paint issues.
I'm sure he was whipped into a maniacal frenzy every time year-end bonuses came out. The closest thing we have to a real-life malevolent Batman villain.
When do we prosecute the regulators for ineffective regulationalityization?