Nine years after the diesel emissions scandal that rocked the Volkswagen Group, the man who ran the automaker at the time is finally standing trial on fraud charges.
Former CEO Martin Winterkorn, 77, appeared in a German court on Sept. 3 to defend himself against multiple criminal allegations in a trial expected to last 12 months. Along with four others, Winterkorn was charged in 2019 with fraud for having VW vehicles equipped with emissions-cheating technology.
The diesel scandal sparked global outrage and led to Winterkorn’s departure from the company in September 2015, just days after U.S. authorities released their investigation. VW has paid out more than €30 billion ($33 billion) over the scandal.
While former VW executives in the US were quickly tried and convicted, Germany took years to bring those allegedly involved to justice. Winterkorn has always denied any allegations that he knew about the scam.
His lawyer Felix Doerr told reporters on Sept. 2 that his client rejects the allegations. Winterkorn will address the court on Sept. 3, he added.
“We are confident that we will be able to refute the allegations,” Doerr said. “We will do so by working through this case chapter by chapter.”
Health problems
Winterkorn’s charges were separated from those of the other four managers due to health problems that made him unfit to stand trial. The case against the other four has been ongoing since 2021, and more hearings have been scheduled through January 2025.
Winterkorn is not accused of being involved in the invention of the so-called defeat device, but only of failing to stop using it after he learned of its existence — thus allowing 9 million cars to be sold with the software in Europe and the US, causing a total loss of €100 million to customers.
The second charge alleges that Winterkorn and two other board members informed the markets too late about the diesel emissions manipulation.
Although his two colleagues, former CEO Herbert Diess and VW chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch, reached a settlement in 2020, the criminal case against Winterkorn was dropped the following year on the grounds that prosecutors wanted to prioritize the fraud trial.
In late 2023, the court, acting at the request of prosecutors, decided to revive the market manipulation charge. A medical expert who examined Winterkorn concluded that the former CEO would be fit to stand trial by September.
The third charge was brought by Berlin prosecutors in 2021. They allege that Winterkorn lied when testifying at a parliamentary hearing. investigation in January 2017.
US tests exposed high emissions
The trial began with prosecutors reading the charges, detailing how and when Winterkorn was first learned about the scam. They listed a May 2014 memo he received as part of a package of materials he wanted to work through over a weekend. The document contained information about U.S. tests exposing that emissions from VW diesel cars were 15 to 35 times higher than permitted, according to prosecutors.
As the situation in the US began to heat up due to the intervention of California’s environmental protection agency, Carb, VW managers discussed the situation with Winterkorn in a meeting in July 2015.
An executive told Winterkorn by phone earlier that day that “we screwed” U.S. authorities. According to the indictment, a presentation at the meeting was titled “What Carb Still Doesn’t Know.”
Winterkorn was also charged in the US in 2018. But since Germany does not extradite its own citizens to countries outside the European Union, he remains safe from prosecution if he stays within German borders.
Winterkorn was also charged in the US in 2018. But since Germany does not extradite its own citizens to countries outside the European Union, he remains safe from prosecution if he stays within German borders.