Former Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn will have to stand trial in Braunschweig from September onwards because of the diesel scandal. The main hearing will begin on September 3rd, the Braunschweig regional court announced. The proceedings on suspicion of fraud and false statements and the proceedings on suspicion of market manipulation will be combined.
Initially, 89 negotiation dates are planned until September 2025. The latter procedure was resumed at the end of 2023. Accordingly, Winterkorn is said to have failed to inform the capital market in a timely manner in 2015 about mass emissions manipulation of diesel engines. These resulted in claims for damages and fines amounting to billions for the group.
In 2015, under pressure from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Volkswagen admitted that it had manipulated diesel emissions values using software. This ensured that the engines met the nitrogen oxide limits on the test bench, but emitted many times more of these toxic exhaust gases on the road. The scandal triggered a large number of lawsuits. In June, the former head of the Volkswagen subsidiary Audi, Rupert Stadler, was sentenced by the Munich II Regional Court to a suspended sentence and a fine worth millions.