In the fraud process relating to the VW diesel affair, the commercial criminal chamber of the Braunschweig Regional Court has begun questioning the accused ex-managers. The aim of more general questions about the start is a better understanding of the work processes at the car manufacturer, said the presiding judge Christian Schütz on Thursday. Four former Volkswagen executives are accused in the criminal proceedings of, among other things, commercial and gang fraud with manipulated software in millions of cars. Richter Schütz asked the accused engineer to describe the problems surrounding the “US 07” project, with which VW wanted to bring a “clean diesel” to the US market.
Regarding the situation with poor emission values in 2006, the exhaust gas aftertreatment expert said: “Failure at this point was not allowed.” However, he never spoke to a manager about introducing a switchover function.
In his admission in September, the exhaust technology engineer had admitted his own mistakes, above all he had failed to “get out of this project in time”. However, he had ascribed the main responsibility for the allegedly long-term cover-up to the top management around ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn. However, he is still not sitting in the dock in the Braunschweig town hall. The complex of proceedings against the 74-year-old remains separated because of health problems.
“Dieselgate” was blown in September 2015 when the US environmental protection agency informed EPA about tampering with emissions tests on diesel cars. A few days later, CEO Winterkorn resigned, but at the same time affirmed that he was “not aware of any wrongdoing”. More than 130 days of negotiations are planned for the large VW diesel trial until the summer of 2023.