The Piedmontese engineer John Pamioresponsible for the development of diesel engines Audiwas the first to have to pay in Germania for the rigged exhaustswith almost five months in preventive prison. Tuesday, after 172 hearings and the pronouncement of the operative part of the sentence for over six hours, the trial also ended for him. The outcome: one sentenced to 1 year and 9 monthssuspended on probation for three years, and one fine of 50 thousand euros. The judges of the Grand Chamber for financial crimes of the second criminal section of the Court of Munichpresided over by the judge Stefan Weickert, they considered favorably that he soon admitted his guilt, helping to clarify things. He was the only defendant to finally address the Court with a formal apology.
Heavier sentence instead for the executive development of Audi aggregates and former member of the board of directors of Porsche Wolfgang Hatz2 years, although suspended with probation, and one fine of 400 thousand euros. The prosecutor wanted a sentence of 3 years and 2 months. Hatz had also been in remand from late September 2017 to June 2018.
Both have had to admit responsibility for helping to bring to market 94.924 auto in Germania e United States, between 2009 and 2015, with discharges in operation greater than those that emerged on the test bench. Resulting, for the Court, in a damage of 2.3 billion euros. A high figure – even if in any case lower than that hypothesized by the prosecution – because the vehicles sold in the USA for American provisions could not be upgraded with new software and were only worth as scrap. The Court positively assessed that none of the defendants acted for personal enrichment, excluding benefits linked to successful targets. However, the extent of the damages, including environmental ones, are weighed against them.
Adblue it was the magic mixture that was supposed to neutralize the exhausts making Audi diesel “the cleanest in the world”. At the start of the process, engineer Pamio had insisted that he had always been committed to making clean engines. It was other departments that imposed the software that they rigged the emissions. However, he didn’t try to explain why, seeing that they were imposing a procedure on him that he didn’t agree with, he hadn’t resigned.
It was Wolfgang Hatz who brought engineer Pamio to Audi after having appreciated him working with him in Italy, but in the courtroom he denied any friendships. The Piedmontese engineer was embittered by this behavior and showed Hatz a photo of him as a guest at the beach in the classroom, as well as a bottle of fine liqueur received as a gift.
The position of the Audi project manager had already been eliminated for some time Henning Lörch who became a key witness for the prosecution resulting in him having to pay a fine. However, they also weigh on him i court costs of over 1 million and thousands of hours of lawyers’ fees, so much so that his lawyer has declared that he is on the insolvency threshold.
After 2 years and 9 months of trial, the hearing of about 190 witnesses and the examination of multiple expert reports and documents, the former CEO of the Audi group Rupert Stadler was convicted. One year and nine months conditional and the payment of a 1.1 million fine, over half to the state and the rest to charities. The court considered that the confession is the first head of an automobile company to take responsibility for his shortcomings. For most of the trial he had portrayed himself as an unrelated victim of manipulations of othersbut finally admitted 17,177 cases of diving for not having prevented, after becoming aware at least in mid-June 2016 of the presence of exhaust manipulation software on the cars, their sale in Germany. A damage calculated at 5% of the purchase value, equal to a total of 41 million euros. He had served 4 and a half months in preventive prison (mid-June to the end of October 2018) and as a result of the sentence, in addition to bearing the costs of the trial, he loses premiums that still had to be paid to him by the Volkswagen group.
However, the judges ruled out the charges for all the defendants false claims e misleading advertising. After the judgement, which can still be appealed for a week, the thesis remains suspended that politics has had a contribution of guilt, imposing rigid and rapid ceilings on the automotive industry has led it to a paradigm shift: instead of running the engine on the road test like, make it road like at the dyno. But if politics hadn’t intervened, the industry would never have voluntarily introduced any improvements to the escapements. The scandal for rigged diesel engines that broke out in September 2015 in the US and then spread to the EU has already cost only the group Volkswagen beyond 30 billion euros. Figure that could still rise following the decision with which, following the precedent of the European Court of Justice in March, the German Supreme Court revised its jurisprudence. Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes also responsible for negligence providing compensation from 5% to 15% of the value, possibly decreased by a percentage of use of the car, for diesel vehicles with thermal windows that reduce, or turn off, the exhaust cleaning systems. In the approximately 100,000 pending cases, buyers will now only have to prove the existence of the devices. Instead, it will be the responsibility of the manufacturers to demonstrate the absence of negligence and that these devices were to avoid damage to the engine.