Executives in court: fraud in the VW diesel scandal

Six years after the VW emissions scandal broke out, criminal proceedings against four executives began in Braunschweig. Ex-VW boss Winterkorn is initially not there.

It’s all about fraud – commercial and gang fraud. That is at least the main allegation in the Braunschweig Volkswagen trial. Behind this is the well-known story of the VW emissions scandal: the buyers did not know anything about the software that the Wolfsburg-based company had built into its diesel cars for years. A software that pretended on the test bench that the cars were clean. On the street, they then emitted 35 times the value of nitrogen dioxide.

As a result, among other things, the defendants deceived the people, so the prosecutor’s office argued. This deception led to the cars being bought. This would have caused damage to the buyers. This damage should amount to a total of several 100 million euros. Nine million vehicles are said to have been sold as part of the fraud – in Europe and the USA.

Four VW executives in court

Four employees, some of whom were former employees of the car manufacturer’s managerial level, are sitting in the dock. All are said to have worked in departments that were relevant to the development of the illegal defeat device. Jens H. for example. As head of engine development, he is said to have instructed employees in 2007 to further develop the engines, although it was clear to him that this was only possible with an impermissible defeat device.

Heinz-Jakob N., the former head of engine development and later head of development for the VW brand, is said to have known about the shutdown software at least from 2013 and hushed it up. Hanno J., Head of the Drive Electronics Department, and Thorsten D., Head of the Work Processes and Exhaust Aftertreatment Department, are also said to have been involved. Thorsten D. is said to have informed the top management at the time on July 27, 2015.

Criminal proceedings against Winterkorn severed

Actually, the former VW boss Martin Winterkorn should also sit in the dock. The public prosecutor’s office accuses him of having knowledge of the manipulation from May 2014. Because he then neither informed the responsible authorities nor stopped the sale of the vehicles, he was also liable to prosecution. He also gave false testimony in the Bundestag investigative committee.

Because Winterkorn is currently unable to stand trial, the regional court has separated his proceedings. The court did not make it easy for itself with this decision, after all, Winterkorn is the most prominent among the defendants. A medical report specially commissioned, however, confirmed: Winterkorn’s hip operation cannot be postponed, but it is currently unclear when he will be able to negotiate again.

Trial had already been postponed twice

Therefore, the court decided against postponing the trial altogether and then starting all five defendants at the same time. The process had already been postponed twice due to the corona pandemic. When exactly the separate process against Winterkorn will begin is still open. The court will probably first come to a verdict in the trial against the four defendants. However, the Braunschweig public prosecutor has lodged a complaint against the separation of the Winterkorn proceedings with the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court. The OLG has not yet made a decision.

More crimes are in the room

In addition to fraud, the prosecution sees other criminal offenses fulfilled: among other things, tax evasion in a particularly serious case and criminal advertising or aiding and abetting these offenses. Tax evasion because some vehicles wrongly received an exemption from vehicle tax. Criminal advertising because VW had advertised with the actually non-existent low emissions.

Long process expected

The trial takes place in the sixth large criminal chamber of the Braunschweig Regional Court – but not in the ordinary courthouse. Because of the expected great interest, the Braunschweig city hall has once again been rented. The mammoth process is now starting there, and it will probably last until at least 2023. The public prosecutor’s office had already handed over 300 volumes of files with around 75,000 pages to the court with the indictment. Since then, further investigations have been made.

At the end of the process, so at least the hope of many, there could be a little more clarity – in one of the biggest industrial scandals in German history.