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Germany has taken another step towards a criminal trial on the VW scandal. The group's former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, was indicted on Monday, April 15, in Braunschweig for serious fraud, violation of the law against unfair competition and breach of trust.
With our correspondent in Berlin, Nathalie Versieux
Five people were indicted. Former CEO Martin Winterkorn is accused of failing to disclose to the authorities and customers in Europe and the United States the handling of diesel engines that he was aware of since, at the latest, May 2014. The other four defendants are former members of the group management.
The prosecutor in Braunschweig has been investigating for years to get there. The indictment seeks to demonstrate on 692 pages that Winterkorn and his co-accused have decided not to report the irregularities of which they were informed. The facts relate to the period 2006-2015. The five men would have acted deliberately so as not to harm the results of the group and therefore their bonus.
This is the first time VW executives have been charged in Germany. By mid-March, the German stock exchange authorities had lodged a complaint against Winterkorn in the United States.
The VW group had admitted in September 2015 to have manipulated the software of 11 million diesel vehicles around the world to circumvent the anti-pollution standards.