Four former Volkswagen leaders were found guilty of fraud on Monday for their role in a scandal of slowing down emissions that rocked the automotive industry a decade ago and accelerated a passage from fossil fuels to cars powered by battery.
The four leaders held high -ranking positions at the car manufacturer and were responsible for engine technology. A panel of judges in Braunschweig, Germany, a city near the siege of Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, made the verdict after a trial of more than three years. Reading sentences lasted almost four hours.
Two of the managers were sentenced to prison terms and two and two were sentenced to suspended sentences. Jens Hadler, who supervised the development of the diesel engine, suffered the longest prison sentence, at four and a half. Another ex-manager who worked in the electronic engine, Hanno Jelden, received two years and seven months. The two men condemned for suspension were Heinz-Jakob Nezient, who was responsible for the development of components and was sentenced to one year and three months, and a man identified as Thorsten D., specialist in programs who received a year and 10 months.
The president of the judges’ jury, Christian Schütz, said that ex-managers had been found guilty of “particularly serious” fraud, which called them at some point as a “gang”. According to Schütz, Mr. Hadler was aware of the results of software tests manipulated since at least September 2007. E -mail between managers suggested that these results were only designed by a small group within the company.
The verdict can be called in a week, and Philipp Gehrmann, who represents Mr. Jelden, told journalists that he thought that the verdict was “false”, mainly because his client was cooperative.
Volkswagen admitted that some of its engineers had installed software in diesel vehicles that allowed cars to recognize when they were tested for programs. If so, cars have increased their emission checks to comply with airline regulations. At other times, cars were more polluting than long-haul trucks. Cars were not able to regularly respect the programs.
