Volkswagen pays millions so that the judiciary closes its investigation against CEO Diess and Supervisory Board chief Pötsch on the charge of market manipulation.
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The wrong timing can sometimes have fatal consequences, both for the job and for life as a whole. At Herbert Diess it was 19 working days that could have decided his fate. 19 working days that, in the worst case, could have put him in prison. It turned out differently: The 19 days are now just becoming very, very expensive. They cost millions.
The criminal proceedings for possible market manipulation in connection with the diesel affair against VW CEO Herbert Diess should be terminated, the same applies to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Hans Dieter Pötsch. Prerequisite: The group transfers nine million euros to protect its two most important leaders from further investigations. That is the deal with the judiciary, initially on Tuesday night Manager magazine reported.
Diess and Pötsch were charged last September – the investigators accused them of failing to inform shareholders in good time about the emissions scandal. The fact that VW manipulated millions of diesel vehicles and is therefore responsible for what is probably the largest industrial fraud in German post-war history was announced in September 2015 by the announcement by the US authorities. But on July 27, 2015, the diesel problem was said to have been discussed at a so-called “damage table” in the presence of VW board members. At the time, Herbert Diess, previously a manager at BMW, was just working on his 19th day as a board member at Volkswagen. Had he started working for the company a month later, no one could have blamed him for knowing about the fraud – which undoubtedly started at VW before his era. However, the question of what Diess heard, said and understood on working day 19 became a question of fundamental importance – both for him personally and for the group, which he has headed since April 2018.
Because in addition to the numerous procedures related to diesel manipulation itself, the matter is also important under stock corporation law. When the fraud became public, the stock crashed. Whether the investors should have been informed of the problems earlier, whether they could have been informed earlier and if so by whom – these aspects were the focus of this investigation.
The VW supervisory board was quoted as welcoming the termination of the proceedings. The CEO of Diess is said to be only moderately enthusiastic about the agreement, it is said from his environment. The lawyer would have preferred to go through the procedure to prove his innocence, his lawyer Tido Park told the SZ. After all, “pragmatic and process-economic” aspects were more important. The lawyer of the supervisory board chairman Pötsch also creates the image of a man who “prioritizes the company’s interests” and only for this reason does not fight for his acquittal. The agreement with the judiciary is not an admission of guilt, it will probably not benefit the plaintiffs in various civil proceedings, be it from drivers or shareholders. But one thing is clear: the group does not want to see Diess and Pötsch on a dock.
So while the two still active managers are bought out of the investigation by the group, the situation with the former VW boss Martin Winterkorn is fundamentally different. In his case, there is said to be no agreement on an end to the process under certain conditions. On the day of the indictment, Winterkorn’s lawyer rejected the allegations: Winterkorn had “no early knowledge” of the manipulations.
The relationship between Winterkorn and the group is considered broken. The Braunschweig public prosecutor is also investigating him on suspicion of fraud.
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