11:17 am, June 27, 2023
A court has sentenced former Audi boss Rupert Stadler for fraud in connection with the carmaker’s diesel emissions scandal.
The 60-year-old is the highest-ranking executive to be convicted over cars that cheated on emissions tests with the help of illegal software.
The Munich regional court handed Stadler, pictured at top, a 21-month jail sentence suspended for three years and fined him 1.1m euros (circa £950,000).
The fine was part of an agreement between his lawyers, the judge and prosecutors after Stadler pleaded guilty last month.
The money will go to non-governmental organisations and the state treasury, reported Automotive News Europe.
The former head of Volkswagen’s luxury division admitted wrongdoing and regret for his failure to keep rigged cars off the market even after the scandal had become public knowledge.
He had maintained he was innocent, putting the blame on engineers for him failing to uncover the cheating, which was widespread, but he finally confessed last month, said Automotive News Europe.
Stadler was charged with fraud and false certification by prosecutors who said he allowed cars with rigged software to be sold even after the scheme was uncovered by the US Environmental Protection Agency in September 2015.
The scandal cost Volkswagen more than $30bn (£23.6bn) in fines and settlements and saw two US executives jailed.
Main image: Matthias Schrader/AP
