AUDI

The ''dieselgate'' ghost still haunts

Three former members of the board of German automaker Audi and a retired manager of the group have been indicted for fraud in connection with the diesel engine emission manipulation scandal, the Munich prosecutor's office announced on Thursday. southern Germany.
"The four defendants are accused of fraud, false indirect certifications and criminal advertising," Munich prosecutors say in a statement. The engine manipulation scandal became known as Dieselgate.
The three former Audi executives are accused of being aware of the manipulations and still failing to act to prevent fraud between 2013 and 2015. The retired manager is accused of knowingly selling vehicles of the Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche brands with falsified certifications emissions.
A court in Munich will now decide whether to accept the prosecution's charges against the group or not.
The charges were brought about a year after former German automaker Rupert Stadler was accused of fraud. He is summoned to appear in court from September 30. The lawsuit against Stadler and his associates is expected to last until 2022 and more than 200 days of hearings are expected.
After the indictment of former Volkswagen group chief executive Martin Winterkorn in April 2019, Stadler becomes the second leading figure in the German auto industry to be formally denounced in the context of the scandal involving Volkswagen, the company of which Audi is part of.
The Dieselgate scandal emerged in 2015, when it became public that Volkswagen had manipulated millions of cars around the world to allow them to pass emissions tests. Since admitting the manipulation, the automaker has had to shell out more than 30 billion euros in fines, damages and recalls. Much of this amount was earmarked for 500,000 American consumers.
Earlier this year, Volkswagen paid out 830 million euros to injured German consumers - before a German court ruled that the automaker had knowingly deceived its customers.
The scandal has haunted the Volkswagen Group since 2015 and could culminate in hundreds of millions more in compensation. The group reported losses of 1.4 billion euros in the first half of 2020, with declining sales due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Autonews