This Wednesday, April 5, Rupert Stadler, former CEO of the Volkswagen subsidiary Audi, should have been back in the dock. But the district court of Munich II canceled the appointment. It won’t continue until after Easter with the big fraud process in the emissions affair at Audi, which has now been going on for two and a half years. So Stadler can still think about whether to confess in order to avoid a prison sentence. Or if he continues to declare that he is innocent.
A week ago, the court drew an interim balance and declared that Stadler was found guilty. As Audi boss, he allowed dirty cars to continue to be sold as clean vehicles after the diesel manipulations were exposed. Stadler could have explained himself now. But his defense put off the judiciary for the weeks after Easter. The former Audi boss is expected to make a statement on April 25th. This also applies to Wolfgang Hatz, ex-top manager at the VW subsidiaries Audi and Porsche as well as at Volkswagen itself. For him, the question is also: confession or imprisonment?
It’s about nothing less than a life choice
The lawyers for Stadler and Hatz have not indicated whether confessions are to be expected. Or whether their clients, as before, reject all allegations. In the courtroom, however, it was carefully noted that the tone of voice had been friendly and authoritative; without any sharpness on the part of the defense. And that Stadler, like Hatz, did not flatly reject the court’s request to make confessions. This indicates intense thought processes. It’s a life choice for both of them.
Without a confession, the district court made it clear that a suspended sentence is out of the question. In the event of a prison sentence, appeal proceedings at the Federal Court of Justice would certainly take years; combined with the uncertainty of what will come of it. And that at the age of 60 (Stadler) or 64 (Hatz) years. According to the court, the former Audi engine boss Hatz is said to have known the “formative elements” of software with which the cleaning of diesel exhaust gases was illegally switched off in numerous vehicles. Hatz denies that.
According to circles of those involved in the proceedings, without confessions, both Stadler and Hatz would have to face prison sentences of around three years each. For comparison: With other prominent defendants in Munich, with star chef Alfons Schuhbeck and Uli Hoeneß from FC Bayern Munich, it had been three years and two months or three and a half years. Schuhbeck and Hoeneß had been convicted of tax evasion. Hoeneß went to prison, and Schuhbeck is still on appeal at the Federal Court of Justice. Audi and especially VW are dealing with one of the biggest German industrial scandals involving several million manipulated diesel vehicles.
The key witness Giovanni P. followed up with a comprehensive confession
A central role in this scandal and in the Munich proceedings is played by the former Audi engine developer Giovanni P., who was taken into custody in mid-2017, where he told a lot and with his statements brought ex-Audi engine boss Hatz into custody. Despite the many statements made by P., the court came to the conclusion that this was only a partial confession. Now P. followed up with a comprehensive confession. The engine developer had his defense attorney Walter Lechner explain to the court that he knew that the so-called defeat devices could not be in compliance with the law. This means that the former engine developer P., unlike Stadler and Hatz, has already cleared the way for a suspended prison sentence.
The fourth accused so far, the key witness Henning L., is now out of the mammoth trial. On Tuesday, the court closed the proceedings against the Audi technician L. because of his minor guilt against payment of a fee. L. has to pay 25,000 euros to two environmental and nature conservation organizations. According to Section 153a of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Audi technician does not have a criminal record. This is the late reward for the fact that L. made a clean sweep from the start and thus strongly supported the investigation; over many years. The statements of the Audi technician gave the authorities valuable insights into what was happening at the VW subsidiary.
Nevertheless, L., unlike other key witnesses in other economic scandals, came to the dock and had to hold out there for two and a half years. Although the investigating public prosecutor’s office in Munich II had in the meantime campaigned to drop the case. According to the findings of the court, L., together with P. and with the knowledge of Hatz, is said to have manipulated diesel engines for Audi, VW and Porsche cars in such a way that the vehicles passed the official exhaust gas tests on the so-called test bench, i.e. in a laboratory, so to speak. On the road, however, the cars emitted far more harmful nitrogen oxides than permitted.
L.’s defense attorney, Maximilian Müller, welcomed the termination of the proceedings against his client. It was a late but correct decision not to “criminalize” L. Müller spoke of a “great relief” that his client’s behavior in approaching the authorities and disclosing everything had not become a “boomerang”. L. was just a “cog in the wheel”. Other employees or managers in comparable positions at Audi either did not even come into the focus of the investigating authorities, or their proceedings had long since been discontinued. That was appropriate and must therefore also apply to L. in particular.