Former VW executive faces charges over diesel scandal
Germany won’t extradite disgraced CEO, so he isn’t likely to stand trial in the U.S.
Former Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn was charged in the U.S. in a deepening probe into the German automaker’s cheating on diesel emissions testing.
Winterkorn, who stepped down from his role as CEO days after the scandal became public, is accused of conspiring to defraud the U.S. and violate the Clean Air Act. The March 14 indictment was unsealed by a Michigan federal court in early May.
“The indictment … alleges that Volkswagen’s scheme to cheat its legal requirements went all the way to the top of the company,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.
“These are serious allegations, and we will prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.”
Winterkorn is the highest-ranking person to be charged in the three-year investigation, opening a new chapter in the cheating scandal that burst into the open in 2015 when VW admitted to rigging the emissions setups of some 11 million vehicles worldwide.
The company, which has bounced back with record deliveries and profits, is nonetheless struggling to step out of the looming shadow of the scandal.
Investigations and probes, including several raids at company sites by German authorities, have continued amid disgruntled investors and European car owners seeking damages.
Winterkorn is unlikely to face trial in the U.S. Germany’s justice ministry said the former CEO would not be sent to the U.S. because the country doesn’t extradite its citizens to countries outside the European Union. That means Winterkorn can’t be arrested unless he leaves Germany. Winterkorn’s lawyer Felix Doerr told business newspaper Handelsblatt he was “surprised” by the charges.
“Volkswagen continues to cooperate with investigations by the Department of Justice into the conduct of individuals,” the company said in a statement. “It would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases.”
VW, which earmarked 25 billion euros (US$30 billion) for fines and damages, admitted in September 2015 to outfitting diesel cars with a defeat device, an embedded software that allowed the vehicles to recognize when they were being tested in laboratory conditions, and reduce emissions to meet acceptable levels.
According to the indictment, Winterkorn was briefed on both the emissions issue and how U.S. regulators were threatening to delay certifying cars for sale, at a July 2015 meeting in Wolfsburg, Germany, where the company is based.
Current chief executive Herbert Diess, who had joined the company weeks earlier from BMW, was also present at the meeting, according to a document released by VW in 2016.
The Department of Justice detailed how the Winterkorn-chaired gathering discussed, with the help of a PowerPoint presentation, how VW was deceiving U.S. regulators, including what information had and hadn’t been disclosed so far, as well as possible consequences for the carmaker if it were found out.
The carmaker pleaded guilty in January 2017 to using false statements to import cars into the U.S. and to obstructing investigations, and paid US$4.3 billion in penalties.
Two other employees have pleaded guilty over their roles in the affair, and five other executives have been indicted by the U.S. and remain in Germany, avoiding arrest. They include executives who led engine development as well as the failed efforts to design a diesel engine that would meet the tougher emissions standards the U.S. adopted for 2007, as well as another liaison to U.S. regulators.
The indictment … alleges that Volkswagen’s scheme to cheat its legal requirements went all the way to the top of the company.