The diesel scandal at VW is considered one of the biggest industrial scandals. Although the excitement has long since died down years after it came to light, the legal investigation is far from over.
The judiciary is sticking to its plan – almost exactly nine years after the diesel scandal at Volkswagen came to light, the role of former company boss Martin Winterkorn is finally to be investigated in detail. The Braunschweig Regional Court has scheduled almost 90 dates for the criminal trial until September 2025. The proceedings are due to begin this Tuesday (September 3). Reports about the 77-year-old’s health have recently raised doubts about the plans.
But just a few hours before the trial is due to begin, the date is still on hold. As of midday today, the district court has not given any indication of a further postponement for health reasons. So will the ruthless clarification that Winterkorn announced in his 2015 apology video now follow? “I don’t have the answers to all the questions at this point either,” he said at the time. It is hard to imagine that the former corporate boss has learned new things in recent years and is now sharing this knowledge with the commercial criminal court in Braunschweig.
There were recently questions about Winterkorn’s health because he had to undergo another knee operation in July of this year after a medical emergency. The operation went well, but Winterkorn was physically very weak, according to those close to him. A stay in a rehabilitation clinic was necessary. The question of whether the former CEO will really soon be travelling from Bavaria to Lower Saxony almost every week to sit in the dock for two days is an obvious one. Especially because his health has already thrown the judiciary’s plans into disarray several times.
Winterkorn is absent from the first major fraud trial
Together with four other former VW managers and engineers, Winterkorn was supposed to sit in a Braunschweig courtroom from September 2021. The charge in the case – which is far from over after three years of negotiations – was commercial and gang-related fraud with the deception program.
Shortly before the trial began, however, an expert report found that Winterkorn was not fit to stand trial after several hip operations. In order to make progress with the investigation of “Dieselgate”, the judge separated the Winterkorn complex from this trial and received a lot of criticism for doing so.
So now another attempt to bring the work and knowledge of “Mr. Volkswagen” to court. In order to restore the memory for the general public, the economic crimes division recently compiled the bundled allegations in a six-page preview. It is about commercial fraud, market manipulation and perjury. Winterkorn is said to have deceived VW buyers about the quality of the cars and, in the crucial days of September 2015, deliberately failed to inform the capital market in time about the risks of fines. In 2017, he is said to have given perjury-free false testimony about this before the Bundestag’s investigative committee.
Around nine million vehicles affected in Europe and the USA
“Dieselgate” was uncovered in September 2015 by investigations by US environmental authorities and scientists. According to the court, around nine million vehicles in Europe and the USA were affected by the diesel manipulation, and buyers are said to have suffered financial losses amounting to several hundred million euros. The affair plunged VW into the worst crisis in the company’s history and cost billions of euros for the legal investigation. Winterkorn resigned and later said that he had to accept that his “name is linked to the so-called diesel affair”.
However, he always denied any personal criminal responsibility. At the beginning of 2024, Winterkorn testified for the first time in court as a witness. “I consider these allegations to be inaccurate,” said the former CEO in the billion-dollar civil case brought by investors against VW before the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court.
Winterkorn referred to the two criminal proceedings for fraud and market manipulation brought by the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office. The charge of giving false testimony in the Bundestag comes from Berlin prosecutors.
Winterkorn, who is in poor health, needs breaks
In his statement as a witness, Winterkorn said that he had not been involved in the decisions regarding the manipulation software. “I neither demanded nor promoted this function, nor even tolerated its use.” During the subsequent questioning over four days, it became clear that the operations had left their mark. Winterkorn appeared to be in poor health and repeatedly needed long breaks. This will probably also apply to the criminal trial if it starts as planned.
Source: Stern
