Another procedure in the VW diesel scandal has ended prematurely: Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess and the chairman of the supervisory board Hans Dieter Pötsch do not have to answer to the court for alleged market manipulation.
As the district court in Braunschweig announced today, the proceedings against a payment of 4.5 million euros each have been terminated, the main trial does not take place. The case against ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn, who is also accused, continues.
Group takes over payment
Volkswagen had previously announced that it would take over payment of a total of nine million euros to end the previously non-public proceedings for Diess and Pötsch. According to the court, the money was already received by the state of Lower Saxony. The judges had agreed on this solution with the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office, the two suspects and their defense lawyers.
The VW supervisory board welcomed the termination of the proceedings. Pötsch and Diess “had taken the opportunity to relieve the company of the current challenges by agreeing to hire”.
Lawsuit against Winterkorn not yet off the table
Former VW CEO Winterkorn, however, must continue to fear being tried in Braunschweig for market manipulation. The public prosecutor charged the three managers in September last year, accusing them of deliberately informing the capital market of the diesel scandal at Volkswagen too late and “unlawfully influencing the company’s stock market price”.
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