Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler has received a suspended sentence and a fine in the “dieselgate” trial, making him the first high-ranking executive to be convicted in the emissions cheating scandal.
- Stadler admitted to fraud by negligence as part of a plea deal, avoiding jail time.
- The Munich district court issued a suspended sentence of one year and nine months, along with a fine of 1.1 million euros.
- Stadler admitted that he allowed vehicles potentially equipped with manipulating software to remain on sale despite knowing about the scam.
- The dieselgate scandal involved Volkswagen, including its subsidiaries Porsche, Audi, Skoda, and Seat, admitting to installing software to manipulate emission levels in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.
- The software, known as defeat devices, made the vehicles appear less polluting in lab tests than they were on the road.
- Stadler had denied wrongdoing throughout the trial but his lawyer acknowledged that he failed to inform business partners about the continued sale of vehicles with defeat devices.
- While Volkswagen claimed that the trickery was the work of lower-level employees without the knowledge of their superiors, German prosecutors argued that Stadler allowed thousands more vehicles with defeat devices to be sold.
- Stadler served as Audi’s CEO for 11 years and was a member of the management board at Volkswagen. His co-defendant, Wolfgang Hatz, a former Audi and Porsche manager, also received a suspended sentence and fine for his involvement in the scandal.