The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has overturned the acquittals of four former Volkswagen board members in a trial for possible breach of trust.
The district court in Braunschweig had to renegotiate the cases, the sixth criminal senate based in Leipzig decided on Tuesday.
The managers were accused of having approved overpayments from influential works councils for years.
(Az. 6 StR 133/22)
According to the district court, the works councils were classified in higher pay groups of the "management group" and received annual bonuses of 80,000 to 560,000 euros, Volkswagen is said to have suffered damage of more than four and a half million euros.
In September 2021, however, the Braunschweig court saw no intentional breach of duty by the managers.
It is true that the objective facts of infidelity are fulfilled.
However, the defendants did not intend to harm the company, it ruled.
They would have relied on the assessments of consultants or found a system of remuneration already in place.
That is why they erroneously assumed that by approving the payments they would not breach any obligations.
The public prosecutor appealed to the BGH.
He checked it and now explained that it was partially incorrect.
On the basis of this judgment, the BGH could not assess whether the granting of the funds contradicted the principles of works constitution law and whether the regional court had correctly denied an intentional breach of duty.
The BGH explained that several things were not clear: for example, according to which system the remuneration of employees at VW was generally regulated and according to which rules they were sorted into salary groups and promoted to higher groups.
The regional court also only took into account the classification of the works councils into pay groups, but not the bonuses, which were sometimes significantly higher than the basic salaries.
Another white collar crime chamber in Braunschweig must now renegotiate and decide.