Sections

ideals
Business Essentials for Professionals

Markets
19/06/2018

VW Diesel Scandal Results In Arrest Of Audi CEO In Germany




VW Diesel Scandal Results In Arrest Of Audi CEO In Germany
The emissions cheating scandal at Volkswagen (VW) has now resulted in the arrest of one of its senior most executive by German investigators. The CEO of German Brand Audi – the luxury car brand of VW was arrested on Monday over the scandal in Germany.
 
VW has now been plunged into a leadership crisis by the arrest of Rupert Stadler which was described by prosecutors in Munich as being one where the executive was detained on fears that he could influence the investigations and cause hindrance into the ongoing proves into the diesel emissions scandal against eth car marker.
 
This incident has a bad timing for the company because its new group CEO Herbert Diess has taken up a plan for restructuring the leadership structure at the company which includes Stadler, and is attempting to hasten the shift of the company of more towards designing and production of electric vehicles for environmental reasons as well as the emissions scandal.
 
“As part of an investigation into diesel affairs and Audi engines, the Munich prosecutor’s office executed an arrest warrant against Professor Rupert Stadler on June 18, 2018,” the Munich prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
 
Stadler has been ordered to be taken into police custody by a judge in Germany primarily because of the potential of him influencing the investigations and possibly creating road blockades for the investigators of the diesel emission scandal, the statement said.
 
While reiterating that there still remained a presumption of innocence for Stadler, both Audi and VW confirmed the arrest.
 
Stadler’s arrest would be included in a discussion of the supervisory board in a meeting on Monday, said a spokesman for Porsche SE, the company that controls VW and Audi.
 
The largest ever crisis in the history of VW was triggered by its admission om September of 2015 of the use of concealing software to cheat on U.S. emissions standards. The company not only faced the highest ever fines in auto history as well as huge dent in its share prices and the exit of  a number of senior functionaries of the company, it also faced multiple regulatory investigations in a number of countries in Europe as well.
 
In May, criminal charges were filed against former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn in the United States even though he is most likely not to be nabbed by U.S. authorities because the practice of not extraditing its citizens by Germany to nations outside of the European Union.
 
The Munich prosecutors however have made it clear that there was no involvement of U.S. authorities in the arrest of Stadler. They informed that this top Audi executive was arrested by them from his home in Ingolstadt, Germany.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

Markets | Companies | M&A | Innovation | People | Management | Lifestyle | World | Misc