Even on the second day of his testimony on the diesel affair, ex-VW boss Winterkorn sees no guilt in himself. He describes situations that, in retrospect, “personally annoy” him.
Ex-VW CEO Martin Winterkorn stated during his questioning about the diesel affair that he would probably act differently in retrospect. “From today’s perspective, I should have asked more in-depth questions. I didn’t do that,” said the 76-year-old before the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court. Winterkorn is invited there as a witness in the civil trial about the emissions manipulations at the Wolfsburg car manufacturer.
The day before, the former top manager had already denied any responsibility for cheating software. “If I had been given a complete picture of the internal processes in the responsible departments, I would not have hesitated to tackle the processes directly and clarify them,” Winterkorn said in an opening statement. He repeated this message on the second day when it came to specific meetings, correspondence and conversations in the months before the scandal broke.
There have been reports of problems in the USA, said Winterkorn. However, when he asked, he was told that “there are still discussions with the authorities, but we can manage it.” Winterkorn also gave an example of what he considered to be insufficient information. Shortly before the manipulation became known, he and many high-ranking colleagues in Florida test drove the affected cars. “That annoyed me personally because no one said anything in Tampa,” Winterkorn reported in his review. Nobody informed him on site that the approval was still missing.
In court, the former CEO also emphasized that the VW board was also confronted with several problems worldwide in the summer of 2015. Shortly before publication, he was concerned, among other things, with a possible recall of a Porsche model and because of serious problems with the rear axles, he traveled to the Chinese government in Beijing. The message behind it: The US market was important, but in the summer months of 2015 it was just one of many venues for a global company.
The process under the Capital Investor Model Procedure Act (KapMug) has been negotiating since 2018 about possible compensation for investors who suffered price losses after the scandal was exposed. It is currently around 4.4 billion euros. After Herbert Diess and Matthias Müller, Winterkorn is the third former VW boss to be questioned about the matter. If Winterkorn’s interrogation continues, further appointments are blocked for the end of February.
Source: Stern
