Rupert Stadler, the former CEO of Audi, is prepared to enter a guilty plea in the “dieselgate” scandal, a German court announced on Wednesday. Stadler will enter a guilty plea following an agreement with the Munich district court rather than getting a suspended sentence and a fine. The former CEO of Audi will be given a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine of $1.2 million, a court official said. Stadler’s trial started in late 2020, and until this week, he steadfastly resisted entering a guilty plea. However, the auto executive’s confession is anticipated to be read out in two weeks after pleading guilty.
Volkswagen, the parent company of Audi, acknowledged installing software to tamper with emission levels
Interestingly, Stadler began working for the organization in 1990 and has been with Volkswagen ever since. He joined the VW executive board three years after he was named CEO of Audi in 2007. However, after the scandal broke, Stadler spent a brief period in jail in 2018 before being fired by the business.
The scandal involving emissions fraud first surfaced in 2015 and shocked the entire automotive industry. Volkswagen, the parent company of Audi, acknowledged installing software to tamper with emission levels in 11 million diesel vehicles around the world. Volkswagen also owns Porsche and Skoda as subsidiaries. During the court proceedings, VW acknowledged that the fraud began in 2006.
Vehicles could appear less polluting in lab testing than they actually were on the roads thanks to the cheating gadget. Certain Volkswagen vehicles were found to emit up to 40 times the legal limit of harmful nitrogen oxide during road testing by the University of West Virginia. Less than a week has passed since Wolfgang Hatz, a former senior executive at Audi, entered a guilty plea. Hatz acknowledged planning the installation of prohibited software to manipulate diesel car emissions with two other coworkers.
The scandal, which first surfaced more than eight years ago, is still giving the 10-brand Volkswagen legal issues
Hatz’s attorney claimed that the defendant “recognised and accepted” that the software might be illegal in Germany and infringe on American law as well. In March, the Paris Court of Appeal denied VW’s bid to throw out the allegations of fraud in a different French diesel emissions probe. The car manufacturer contended that because it had already paid $1.1 billion in fines in Germany in 2018 that it could not be held accountable for the same conduct again. The scandal, which first surfaced more than eight years ago, is still giving the 10-brand Volkswagen legal issues. Reports state that the company has spent more than $34 billion on court costs, refunds, and damages as a result of the entire saga.