Frankfurt (AFP)

Three former members of the board of Audi, as well as a former senior official, were sent to criminal justice in Germany on Thursday as part of the scandal of rigged diesel engines, which continues to shake up the automotive sector from the country.

They are accused of having "had knowledge" of the manipulation of engines, and of having all the same "made sure that the cars being provided" can "continue to be sold", affirmed the parquet of Munich Thursday.

This is the latest episode of "dieselgate", a vast scandal of rigged engines which has plunged the German automotive sector into a crisis from which it is struggling to come out.

The case erupted in September 2015, when Volkswagen recognized the rigging of 11 million vehicles, allowing its engines to appear less polluting during laboratory tests than on the roads.

Audi, owned by Volkswagen, found itself at the heart of the matter, with certain responsibilities for the offending engines falling directly to the brand, particularly in research and development.

The prosecution did not name the four leaders on Thursday, but, according to the business daily Handelsblatt, they include two former directors of research and a former director of purchasing.

For its part, Audi intends to "cooperate with the authorities", said a spokesperson, while recalling that "the principle of the presumption of innocence continues to apply".

"Audi has become a new company since the revelations", further assured a spokesperson for the brand.

- Sprawling affair -

These indictments of leaders are not the first ordered by the German justice: the former boss of Audi, Rupert Stadler, and the ex-CEO of the Volkswagen group, Martin Winterkorn, are already awaiting a trial on this sprawling affair.

The first hearing, concerning Mr. Stadler, tried for fraud alongside three other executives, is scheduled for September 30.

He will be the first senior official of the group to respond in Germany to justice, in a trial that is expected to last at least until December 2022.

The current CEO of the group, Herbert Diess, and the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch, were also sacked last September for manipulating the financial markets.

But they avoided a trial, with a financial transaction of nine million euros, under an agreement with the justice.

Beyond the lawsuits against certain group officials, Volkswagen has already settled a large part of the criminal and civil component in Germany.

- 30 billion euros -

Audi settled in 2018 a fine of 800 million euros for "breaches" of its "duty of supervision" concerning the homologation of diesel cars.

The group for its part agreed in April to pay at least 750 million euros to compensate 240,000 customers in the country.

After an unfavorable decision from the highest civil court, the manufacturer now intends to propose amicable agreements to settle a large part of the 60,000 remaining claims in the country.

But this is only a small part of the total bill of the case for Volkswagen, more than 30 billion euros, much of it in the United States, where the scandal erupted.

In mid-June, a former German manager at Audi and Volkswagen, Axel Eiser, was also arrested in Croatia, at the request of the American authorities.

He was indicted in January 2019, alongside other leaders of the group, Richard Bauder, Stefan Knirsch and Carsten Nagel, all heads of the engine development division at Audi in Germany.

In civil matters, the last major lawsuit remains that of investors asking for compensation for the plunge in the share price after the revelations.

© 2020 AFP