The Strategist

Dieselgate: Washington charges Volkswagen's former head



05/04/2018 - 12:52



Accusations of fraud and collusion are filed against the former director of the German company Volkswagen Martin Winterkorn in the federal district court of Michigan (USA), reports Bloomberg.



Volkswagen AG
Volkswagen AG
It is specified that the charges were brought within an investigation into the so-called Dieselgate that broke out at the end of 2015 due to the fact that the company was caught in fraud.

During the trial, the American side accused Winterkorn of knowing that he had committed violations in the manufacture of diesel engines. And, being the enterprise’s head, let the violations happen, and resigned when it all became public.

In addition, according to the American side, he knew that the US was going to delay issuing the necessary certificates for the sale of cars produced in 2016.

Recall that violations committed by Volkswagen’s management were revealed in September 2015. It turned out that the carmaker used software, which allowed to bypass restrictions on exhaust gases.

During the car’s testing, the sensor showed that concentration of the released harmful substances was at the permissible level. In fact, however, it exceeded the normative by tens of times. More than 11 million diesel vehicles were equipped with these sensors.

When all this was clarified, the German company’s management admitted its guilt, in particular that cars with such sensors were imported both to the countries of the European Union and to the United States.

As a result, Winterkorn resigned, and Matthias Müller, director of Porsche was appointed. April 10, 2018 it became known that the board of Volkswagen intends to ask him to resign.

source: bloomberg.com