Porsche staff come under scrutiny

GERMAN prosecutors were probing current and former staff of Volkswagen-owned sports carmaker Porsche, including a management board member, as part of their inquiries into emissions manipulations, they said yesterday.

About 10 sites in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg were searched by 160 officials, the prosecutor’s office in Porsche’s hometown of Stuttgart said.

“The three suspects include a member of the management board and a member of Porsche’s higher management. The third suspect is no longer employed at Porsche,” it said.

The searches formed part of a probe into Porsche staff suspected of fraud and fraudulent advertising tied to manipulated emissions control systems of diesel passenger cars, the prosecutors said.

A Porsche spokesperson confirmed the searches, but declined to provide further details.

More than 2½ years after VW admitted to cheating emissions tests on diesel engines in the US, the carmaker and some of its brands continue to be investigated by authorities.

Earlier this year, German prosecutors widened a probe of Porsche’s sister brand Audi, which developed a 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine used in about 80 000 VW, Audi and Porsche models found to have been equipped with illicit software.

Audi sites in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm were also searched yesterday, Stuttgart prosecutors and an Audi spoke person said. – Reuters