Brunswick / Wolfsburg. That is a real hammer!
The public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig has one of its preliminary proceedings against VW set.
This is the “CO2 trial” conducted against six suspects. There was a suspicion that in many vehicle models the brand VW the carbon dioxide emissions had been deliberately manipulated.
Public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig closes proceedings against VW
“However, this initial suspicion has not been proven in the course of the law enforcement agency’s extensive, multi-year investigations with the sufficient certainty required for an indictment,” the Braunschweig public prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Specifically, the following allegations were made:
- Amounted to
- tax evasion
- criminal advertising
- Air pollution
- indirect false certification
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To check these facts, the investigators had evaluated and obtained expert reports themselves and compared extensive VW data sets with follow-up measurements and investigations by the Federal Motor Transport Authority. Findings from other investigations relating to Volkswagen AG were also included.
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It emerged that VW had the leeway given for the emissions and consumption of vehicles from the previous one, until 1.9. 2017 regulations as well as the ranges of permissible tolerance ranges.
No criminal manipulation provable
“However, deliberately illegal manipulations attributable to specific vehicle registrations could not be proven in terms of type or extent of impact – and only such behavior could be prosecuted,” said the Braunschweig public prosecutor.
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More about VW:
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The Amounted tothe status of the offense was thus no more fulfilled than the offense of the unauthorized advertising. For the presence of a tax evasion as well as one indirect false certification by entering an inaccurate CO2 emission, there is no adequately provable, conscious exceedance of the legal tolerances given at the time.
The facts of the Air pollution was not met for legal reasons, since carbon dioxide, despite its known environmentally harmful effects, is not a pollutant within the meaning of the applicable penal code (StGB § 325). At the same time, the authority emphasizes that the termination of the proceedings has no effect on further civil law claims.
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Other investigations are ongoing
In Braunschweig, investigations into possible market manipulation and the software manipulation process for nitrogen dioxide emissions are ongoing. Ex-VW boss Martin Winterkorn, current group boss Herbert Diess and today’s chairman of the supervisory board and former CFO Hans Dieter Pötsch are charged with alleged market manipulation. Winterkorn is also accused of fraud with other VW employees. (ck)
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