Ex Audi boss Stadler to confess in diesel fraud trial

Former Audi boss Rupert Stadler will make a confession in his trial over falsified emissions values in the company's diesel cars, his lawyer announced on Wednesday.

One of many trials in Germany linked to the so-called "dieselgate" scandal, the fraud rocked the top echelons of the high-end carmaker, which is owned by the Volkswagen Group.

Stadler had agreed to a plea bargain proposal, which would be presented to the court in a fortnight, said defence lawyer Thilo Pfordte at the Munich Regional Court. The court's proposal was also approved by the prosecution.

The court had offered Stadler the prospect of a suspended sentence if he made a comprehensive confession and paid a fine of €1.1 million.

Stadler had until now maintained his innocence during the trial, which has been going on for two and a half years.

He is accused of not informing Audi's partners soon enough about the fact that emissions levels could be manipulated with a special software.

According to a preliminary assessment of the court's Economic Criminal Chamber, he probably realized in July 2016 at the latest that the exhaust gas values could have been manipulated, but he had allowed the sale of the cars to continue until the beginning of 2018.

Following the plea bargain, the court could sentence Stadler to a prison term of between one and a half and two years, suspended by three years, said presiding judge Stefan Weickert, with one of the conditions being that he makes a payment to charitable institutions.

The former head of Audi engine development, Wolfgang Hatz, and two of his senior engineers had already confessed that they had helped design the engine software.

The so-called "defeat devices" meant that the cars complied with nitrogen oxide limits on the test bench, but not on the road. This meant that the carmakers save themselves the high cost of having to retrofit exhaust gas purification systems onto their cars.

Rupert Stadler had become head of the Ingolstadt-based VW subsidiary in 2007, succeeding Martin Winterkorn, who became VW group boss.

In June 2018, Stadler was remanded in custody for four months on suspicion of collusion, until his resignation as Audi boss and VW board member.

He had already reached a civil settlement with the Volkswagen Group and paid €4.1 million to his former employer for breach of duty.

In the end, the defence and the prosecutor were still arguing over the conditions of the probation, with public prosecutor Nico Petzka demanding €2 million. But with the plea bargain, the door is now open for a legally binding verdict, which will save the court an appeal and the other parties involved possibly years of further legal disputes.

Thus, Stadler could soon leave the court as a convicted fraudster, but a free man.