BERLIN, Sept 9 — Volkswagen’s former chief executive Martin Winterkorn will stand trial over the car giant’s massive “dieselgate” scam, a German court said today, five years after one of the biggest crises to rock the automobile industry.
“The chamber has determined that there is sufficient suspicion, that is, an overwhelming possibility of conviction, of the accused Professor Doctor Winterkorn for commercial and organised fraud,” said the court in Brunswick in a statement.
Winterkorn, 73, will stand trial with four other former colleagues, who are also accused of fraud, as well as serious tax evasion and fraudulent advertising.
Volkswagen sank into a deep tangle of legal problems over its stunning revelation in September 2015 that it had installed devices in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide to make them seem less polluting than they were when undergoing emission tests.
Winterkorn resigned days after the revelations but denied any personal wrongdoing.
The “dieselgate” cheating scandal plunged one of the main pillars of German industry into the biggest crisis in its existence.
But the VW group had in May put to bed one of the most potentially damaging cases, by paying nine million euros in an out-of-court settlement to prevent its two current bosses from going to trial over market manipulation charges.
The German car giant’s chief executive Herbert Diess and supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Poetsch were in September charged for allegedly failing to inform shareholders in a timely manner about the pollution cheating scandal in 2015.
But a deal was struck to end the proceedings.
On top of this fraud trial, Winterkorn still faces charges over market manipulation.
The dieselgate scandal shook Volkswagen to its foundations, and with it Germany’s flagship car sector, which employs around 800,000 people.
The saga has already cost VW more than €30 billion (RM148 billion) in fines, legal costs and compensation payments to car owners — the vast majority in the United States.
In late April, the group settled Germany’s biggest lawsuit in an out-of-court settlement in which it agreed to pay around €750 million in compensation to some 235,000 customers, or between 1,350 and €6,250 per car. — AFP
