German prosecutors said Wednesday they had charged former Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler and three unnamed individuals with fraud over the Volkswagen subsidiary's role in the "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal. "Professor Rupert Stadler and three other defendants... are accused of fraud, falsifying certifications and illegal advertising," the prosecutors said, linked to over 430,000 VW, Audi and Porsche cars fitted with "defeat devices" to fool regulators' emissions tests.
While the three unnamed individuals were charged with having developed engines used in Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche models that had software that made the emissions controls work better on the test stand than in real-life driving, Stadler was charged with having known about the manipulation in Audi and Volkswagen cars and with continuing to sell the models despite that knowledge.
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Prosecutors said he found out about the impermissible software at the end of September 2015, at the latest, when the Volkswagen scandal broke, but continued permitting rigged cars to be sold. In Stadler's case, the accusations related to 251,000 Audi vehicles, 71,500 Volkswagen vehicles, and 112,000 Porsche cars, sold in the U.S. and Europe.
Volkswagen was caught by US authorities in September, 2015, and paid more than 30 billion euros ($33.5 billion) in fines and civil settlements. Former VW group CEO Martin Winterkorn is facing criminal charges in the US but cannot be extradited, while two other executives have been sentenced to prison terms.
(With agency inputs)
