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Former VW boss Winterkorn: What did the detail-obsessed manager know?
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
More than eight years after the diesel scandal at Volkswagen was exposed, former CEO Martin Winterkorn is due to give his perspective in court on Wednesday. The appointment starts at 10 a.m.
He has been invited as a witness in the billion-dollar civil case brought by investors at the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court (OLG). He is to be questioned about various allegations, some of which date back to 2007.
What is being argued about?
With the proceedings under the Capital Investor Model Procedure Act (KapMug) before the third civil senate of the Higher Regional Court, thousands of investors have been fighting for compensation since 2018 because they suffered price losses amounting to billions after the scandal was exposed.
You do not feel that you are informed about risks in a timely manner. Instead of VW itself, it was the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that finally informed on September 18, 2015 about manipulations in emissions tests of diesel cars. VW's stock market price then collapsed.
The model plaintiff is Deka Investment, the defendants are Volkswagen AG and its main shareholder Porsche SE. “We are excited,” said the plaintiffs about the upcoming survey.
What did Winterkorn know?
The long-time CEO Winterkorn, known as "Mr Volkswagen", resigned in September 2015 a few days after the emissions manipulation became known - but a little later claimed that he had not known anything about illegal activities before the scandal was made public.
After Herbert Diess and Matthias Müller, Winterkorn is the third former CEO to be questioned on the matter by the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court. After several years of proceedings, the court currently wants to hear a total of more than 80 witnesses.
Diess and Müller also claim to have had nothing to do with the manipulation of the cars, which has already cost the company well over 30 billion euros. They rejected any responsibility of their own. “The whole topic was foreign to me,” said the 70-year-old Müller in the trial last week.
Müller also defended Martin Winterkorn. “He sat there like a heap of misery,” Müller said of Winterkorn. When the scandal broke in September 2015, he was “completely irritated” and demanded a quick reaction.
According to Müller, there was “great consternation” at a board meeting on September 22, 2015. The following day, with his resignation, Winterkorn assumed “political responsibility,” as Müller said. Winterkorn simply could not imagine that something like this would happen in this company.
How does winter grain appear?
Observers believe that an emotional appearance by the now 76-year-old former car boss is possible. Because Winterkorn was not only seen as a power-conscious manager, but also as a detail-obsessed manager who sometimes led the company in an authoritarian manner. With the diesel scandal, the worker's son's life's work fell apart.
Winterkorn withdrew from public life after the diesel scandal was exposed. He lives in isolation in his villa in Munich-Bogenhausen and, according to media reports, is said to avoid traveling abroad for fear of US prosecutors.
His eagerly awaited statement is considered the ex-VW boss's first public appearance in a long time. Those close to him said that he would try to complete the planned interrogations in Braunschweig as best as possible.
Like every other witness in court, Winterkorn does not have to incriminate himself. Prosecutors will probably also follow in detail in the investor trial whether he might do so. There are currently two criminal proceedings against Winterkorn ongoing in Braunschweig.
What threatens Winterkorn?
The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig has brought charges against Winterkorn, among other things, for serious fraud. Car buyers were knowingly and willfully deceived, according to an almost 700-page indictment from 2019. He was also accused of violating the law against unfair competition and breach of trust because he did not stop and disclose the diesel manipulation, which was illegal according to the indictment should have.
Winterkorn denies the allegations. The proceedings recently stalled due to the health of the former VW boss. The public prosecutor's office made serious allegations against him and other (former) executives: "Ultimately, the income of the accused, and in particular their contractually stipulated bonus payment, also depended on the economic success of the company."
The Braunschweig regional court also reopened another criminal case against Winterkorn at the end of 2023, which will also depend on who informed whom about the manipulations and when. In the proceedings on suspicion of market manipulation, Winterkorn is accused of not notifying the capital market in a timely manner about the installation of an inadmissible shutdown device.
In both cases, prison sentences or fines could be imposed. When and how negotiations will continue is still unclear. According to Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the fraud trial could continue in September.
apr/mamk/dpa