Audi boss arrested over diesel emissions scandal
Ministry to crack down on fake service charges
AUDI Chief Executive Rupert Stadler was arrested on Monday in connection with parent company Volkswagen’s “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal, with prosecutors saying they feared he might try to destroy evidence.
The dramatic development comes a week after Munich prosecutors raided Stadler’s home, accusing him of fraud and the falsification of documents that allowed diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software to be sold to European customers.
Prosecutors in the Bavarian state said the arrest was justified because of the “risk of concealment of evidence”.
Audi confirmed the arrest to AFP, declining to give further details.
“For Mr Stadler, the presumption of innocence continues to apply,” a spokesman said in a statement.
Stadler is the most senior executive yet to be detained in the dieselgate crisis, which started when the Volkswagen group admitted in 2015 to installing so-called “defeat devices” in some 11 million diesels worldwide that made them seem less polluting in lab tests than they actually were on the road.
The affected vehicles involved VW’s own-brand cars, but also those made by Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat.
VW’s luxury subsidiary Audi has long faced suspicions that its engineers helped create the software used in the scam.
Audi’s former head of engine development, Wolfgang Hatz, was taken into custody in Germany in September 2017 and remains behind bars.
A manager at VW subsidiary Porsche was also detained in April. He was identified by German media as Joerg Kerner, an engineer in charge of Porsche’s engine division who was working at Audi when the diesel scandal broke.
In a separate setback for Audi, German authorities earlier this month ordered the recall of some 60,000 Audi A6 and A7 cars across Europe to remove illegal emissions control software – using a different technique however than the one at the heart of dieselgate.
Auto industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the CAR research centre called the allegations against Stadler “very serious”.
“Audi needs a new start,” he said.
Stadler, 55, who joined Audi in 1990 and has been its CEO since 2007, has enjoyed the full backing of VW’s top brass so far.
But Dudenhoeffer said VW’s supervisory board may want to reconsider its stance when it meets today.
Stadler’s arrest is the latest blow to the Volkswagen group, which has struggled to shake off the dieselgate crisis and continues to face a litany of investigations at home and abroad.
Two former VW chief executives – Martin Winterkorn and his successor Matthias Mueller – have both landed in the sights of German prosecutors. TOURISM sector businesses will be fined up to 300,000 riel ($75) if caught imposing “service charges” without first applying to the Ministry of Tourism, an announcement issued on Monday said.
The ministry’s director of the tourism, accommodation and food and beverage (F&B) management, Kim Serey Rath, who issued the warning, told The Post on Monday: “We will check on restaurants and those providing accommodations.
“And if anyone is found abusing the order, we will issue them with fines without exception.”
The purpose of controlling the number of establishments that can impose the charge, he said, is to strengthen service quality across the industry.
He said the ministry noted that some operators were including service charges without complying with the ministry’s procedures, adding that approved service charges should never be more than 10 percent.
In order to impose the service charge, a business must have a valid tourism licence and a “quality” certificate issued by the ministry, it said in its announcement.
All certified business operator must also put a notice of their service charge at the entrance to their establishment.
“We want to ensure a high quality of service for the public, and business owners must allow customers to comment on their services,” he said, referring to the ministry’s status as a channel for feedback within the sector.
According to the Tourism Ministry’s 2017 report, licences have been issued to 33,727 restaurants, 781 hotels and 2,255 guesthouses.
The Kingdom’s biggest tourist draw, the Angkor Archaeological Park, welcomed 858,580 visitors in the first quarter of this year, according to the report. It generated more than $39 million and represented a 12 percent increase over the same period last year.
Cambodian Tourism Federation President Sinan Thourn welcomed the move.
“It is a good move by the ministry. Business operators should not charge extra on the bill before their quality of service is properly certified,” Thourn said.