Ex-Volkswagen CEO Winterkorn charged in US over diesel scandal

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The US Justice Department on Thursday disclosed the filing of criminal charges against former Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn, accusing him of conspiring to cover up the German automaker’s diesel emissions cheating.

The indictment, filed in secret in March, was unsealed in US District Court on Thursday as Volkswagen held its annual meeting in Germany. Winterkorn resigned days after the scandal over polluting vehicles in the United States became public in September 2015.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Environmental Protection Administration chief Scott Pruitt and other senior Trump administration officials issued statements criticizing VW with the indictment, which marks a rare instance of a CEO being subjected to criminal prosecution for corporate behavior.

“If you try to deceive the United States, then you will pay a heavy price,” Sessions said.

Reuters photo

The US indictment of Winterkorn is likely to be largely symbolic. As a German citizen, he is almost certain not to come to the United States and to seek protection under German extradition law. The former CEO is also under investigation by German authorities.

Volkswagen settled criminal charges with the US Justice Department in 2017 and agreed to a payment of 4.3 billion US dollars. In total, VW has agreed to spend more than 25 billion US dollars in the United States to address claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers.

The company also has offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting US vehicles. Many are now stored in parking lots around the United States.

Volkswagen has been fighting to move past the emissions scandal, vowing to spend billions on a number of new electric vehicles as it has seen US sales rebound. The indictment reopens the question of whether other senior VW executives knew about the scandal, which threatens to prolong the crisis.

Winterkorn, 70, is charged with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud and violating the Clean Air Act from at least May 2006 through November 2015 after the company admitted using illicit software that allowed Volkswagen diesel vehicles to emit excess pollution without detection.

A lawyer for Winterkorn in Germany did not immediately comment. Winterkorn in January 2017 told German lawmakers he had not been informed of the cheating early and would have halted it had he been aware, but he did not say when he first became aware of the issue.

Sessions said in a statement that the charges against Winterkorn showed that “Volkswagen’s scheme to cheat its legal requirements went all the way to the top of the company.”

A Volkswagen spokesman in Germany said the company “continues to cooperate with investigations” of individuals but would not comment on Thursday’s charges.

Source(s): Reuters