Former Audi boss Stadler negotiating confession in diesel fraud trial

Munich, April 25, (dpa/GNA) – The former boss of German luxury carmaker Audi, is negotiating a plea deal in the trial over falsified emissions values in the company’s diesel cars.

The Munich court’s presiding judge Stefan Weickert, said on Tuesday that the court was offering Audi’s ex-boss Rupert Stadler, a suspended sentence of between one and a half and two years, as for other defendants who make full confessions.

The prosecution “could live with it” if Stadler had to pay a fine that ran into the millions of euros, he said.

Another meeting with Stadler’s defence lawyers was planned for Tuesday afternoon, the judge said.

Stadler and other co-defendants are facing charges, relating to the manipulation of exhaust emissions from diesel engines.

The former head of Audi engine development, Wolfgang Hatz, made a confession at the trial on Tuesday, although in his case, the prosecution rejected the proposed plea bargain.

According to a preliminary assessment by the court’s economic criminal division, Stadler should have realized by July 2016 at the latest, that the exhaust emission values of the diesel vehicles could have been manipulated.

He should have addressed the matter and informed business partners, rather than allowing the continued sale of the vehicles, according to the assessment.

Hatz admitted that he had arranged for software to be designed so that diesel engines, emitted levels of nitrogen oxide that were acceptable under testing conditions, but not on road journeys.

This meant the carmaker did not have to retrofit larger Adblue fuel tanks, in order to meet emissions levels prescribed by the law.

In his confession, read out by his defence lawyer, Hatz said that he had seen and accepted the possibility that inadmissible defeat devices had been installed.

His statement came after the court proposed a suspended sentence in exchange for a full confession, including the payment of €400,000 ($441,485).

Hatz’s defence team agreed, but the prosecution demanded a prison sentence without probation, saying Hatz held a senior post and was responsible for considerable damage and made his confession very late.

The court reached a plea bargain in the case of a co-defendant, a senior engineer who is to receive a suspended sentence on payment of €50,000.

GNA

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