The trial of former Volkswagen Group President Martin Winterkorn over his alleged responsibility for the diesel emissions manipulation scandal began on Tuesday, after nine years and several delays.
The Braunschweig Regional Court decided to try the manager on a case that combined three different charges: commercial fraud, false statements and market manipulation. Winterkorn rejected all of these charges, claiming that he never knew about the fraud.
According to a court statement cited by Efe, the first of the charges relates to suspicions that customers were deceived about the performance of their cars, which, contrary to advertising, only met emission standards when tested.
According to the indictment, the alleged fraud involved approximately nine million vehicles sold in Europe and the United States between 2006 and 2015, with losses to buyers estimated at several hundred million euros.
Winterkorn, however, is not accused of fraud throughout this period, although the prosecution believes he knew about it by 2014 at the latest.
Four other former Volkswagen employees were charged with the same crime and went to trial in 2021, but the case against Winterkorn was separated from the others due to his health problems.
The court has scheduled at least 90 hearings, and in the best-case scenario, the trial could end in September 2025, if there are no delays.
The former chief executive is also accused of making false statements in a 2017 appearance in the lower house of the German parliament (Bundestag) where he testified that he had no knowledge of emissions manipulation until 2015.
On the other hand, the charge of market manipulation refers to the fact that Winterkorn allegedly avoided immediately disclosing the financial risk posed to the automotive group by the discovery of emissions manipulation by the US authorities, despite the fact that the US authorities had already made it public.
Shortly after the scandal, which is estimated to have cost Europe’s largest carmaker today more than 32 billion euros, broke, Winterkorn resigned from his post.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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