Volkswagen fat cat Winterkorn knew about fraud

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Volkswagen‘s Former CEO Could Get $30 Million Despite Huge Diesel Scandal

25 September 2015

If Volkswagen’s pollution emissions weren’t bad enough, the company will likely emit loads of cash to its CEO on his ride out the door. Martin Winterkorn, the CEO who announced his resignation this week, is eligible to receive at least $30 million in pension payouts from the Volkswagen Group with the possibility of receiving millions more in severance. Winterkorn stepped down amid the growing scandal around Volkswagen‘s attempts to mislead consumers and regulators about how cleanly its cars burn fuel.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

“Former Volkswagen CEO knew of dieselgate”

Today, 12:36

The Justice Department in Germany will continue its criminal investigation into former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn for fraud. This has been reported by the prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig. Winterkorn was head of Volkswagen in the period when 11 million diesel cars were equipped with fraudulent software to make it look like they were cleaner cars.

The Justice Department says Winterkorn already knew about the scandal long before he has admitted. He may get a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The prosecution this week raided 28 locations to find more evidence in this case. It was mainly about Volkswagen‘s offices in Wolfsburg and surroundings. Also, there have been raids at a number of employees of Volkswagen. What was found, Justice will not say as the investigation continues.

37 suspects

Based on the material that has been seized, the total number of suspects in the dieselgate affair has now risen from 21 to 37. These are managers and technicians at different levels.

Against Winterkorn there is also an investigation because he may have informed financial markets too late about dieselgate. Therefore, investors have been damaged. The shares plunged after the announcement of the scandal by 25 percent. The price is still not back to the level before dieselgate became known.

Volkswagen had to admit under pressure from the US Environmental Protection Agency in September 2015 that they cheated in the admission tests of cars. By special software the cars during the test were cleaner than in practice. Some models emitted up to 20 times more nitrogen oxides than allowed.