A criminal case in Braunschweig is investigating the question of whether Volkswagen has been paying high-ranking works council members for years of excessive remuneration and bonuses. Now there is a prominent witness.
Another court appointment with a prominent VW face in the Braunschweiger Stadthalle: Ex-works council boss Bernd Osterloh is expected as a witness in the infidelity trial against VW managers.
The Regional Court of Braunschweig is dealing there with allegedly excessive salaries and bonus payments to senior works councils at Volkswagen.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses three former and one still incumbent personnel manager of the VW group of having released inappropriately lavish remuneration for Osterloh and other influential works council members at the largest European car manufacturer between 2011 and 2016. This would have reduced parts of the profit and tax payments – the charge is embezzlement.
Separate state aid proceedings are in progress against Osterloh himself, and the allegations in the case of the four management executives are not directed against him. However, the outcome of the trial in the Braunschweig town hall will likely determine whether the judges will take another closer look at the role of the powerful employee representative. In May, Osterloh moved to the VW commercial vehicle holding company Traton in Munich as Chief Human Resources Officer.
The chamber hopes that his information and statements from other witnesses will provide more information on the circumstances under which the salaries were approved by the management staff. In years of high profits and bonuses, Osterloh received total remuneration of up to 750,000 euros.
Among the defendants are the two ex-corporate personnel managers Horst Neumann and Karlheinz Blessing. When the trial started a good two weeks ago, her defense lawyers had rejected the allegations.
The infidelity process is currently the third VW-related process for which the Braunschweig Regional Court has moved to the town hall. At the end of last week, the eagerly anticipated fraud process regarding the diesel affair also started there, albeit without ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn.
For three years now, investors have been negotiating the billion-dollar model process for the VW diesel affair there. In the process under the Capital Investor Model Procedure Act (KapMuG), the focus is on the question of whether VW informed the markets in good time about the scandal involving millions of manipulated diesel engines. There is no end in sight.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
