Porsche's boss of powertrains arrested over emission scandal

According to a media report, Joerg Kerner, head of the powertrain department at Porsche has been arrested. It is reported that German Police have kept him in remand due to him being considered a flight risk.

It has been over two years since Volkswagen admitted to emissions cheating. Kerner is one of the three people at Porsche who is said to have known the fact that engines developed by Audi had been manipulated (these were used in Porsches). In the larger scheme of things, authorities have also brought in Audi's 3.0-liter V6 diesel engine under investigation. The same engine was used in over 80,000 VW, Audi and Porsche models that were found to have the illegal software.

Back in October 2017, Wolfgang Hatz - former Research & Development Head at Porsche, was arrested in Munich over his role in the emissions scandal. Porsche had placed him under suspension for a while, before Hatz resigned. In December last year, Volkswagen Executive Oliver Schmidt was jailed for 7 years and a fine of USD 4,00,000 was imposed on him by a US judge.

Source - Reuters