Frankfurt (AFP)
Former Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn will pay a record sum of around 11 million euros to his former employer to settle negligence charges in connection with the "dieselgate" scandal, sources close to him learned on Sunday folder.
"The supervisory board validated at its meeting on Saturday the main points of amicable agreement," said a spokesperson for the group on Sunday, without revealing more details.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the former chairman of the group's executive board until his resignation in 2015 would pay some 11 million euros in "damages for breaches" in the performance of his duties.
The details of the agreements, which also concern other former executives of the automotive giant, must be concluded and announced definitively "in the coming days", said the spokesperson.
Volkswagen had said at the end of March its intention to claim compensation from its former leaders, without giving any amount.
According to German media, Volkswagen demanded more than a billion euros from them and insurers with which the group has taken out coverage for directors' liability.
Insurance should pay between 200 and 500 million euros, according to the media.
Mr. Winterkorn "violated his duty of care" by failing, as the boss of the group, "to explain the context of the use of unauthorized software functions" in diesel engines, had found a law firm, commissioned by Volkswagen to elucidate the circumstances of the sprawling scandal.
Mr. Winterkorn has always defended himself.
The payment has no impact on criminal proceedings.
German justice sees in Mr. Winterkorn one of the main persons responsible for the cheating of the group with the twelve marks relating to 11 million diesel vehicles, to make them appear less polluting than they were in reality.
His trial has been postponed to mid-September 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rupert Stadler, the former boss of the Audi subsidiary fired in 2018, became last September the first boss to answer for this scandal in a German court.
This case, revealed at the time by the American authorities, tarnished the reputation of the country's auto industry, which is still struggling to recover.
From a financial point of view, Volkswagen has today put an end to much of the scandal with a bill exceeding 30 billion euros, the largest of which was paid in the United States, and is putting the package on the turn to electric.
In the past, the German conglomerate Siemens, wet in a large-scale corruption scandal, had also demanded compensation from two ex-leaders, Heinrich von Pierer and Klaus Kleinfeld.
The first had to pay the company five million euros in 2010, and the second two million euros.
© 2021 AFP