USA: VW's Ex-CEO charged over diesel emissions scandal

Volkswagen's former CEO Martin Winterkorn along with five others have been charged over a conspiracy to mislead regulators in USA over the emissions from diesel cars. Last month Porsche's head of powertrains, Joerg Kerner was arrested for the same.

According to the indictment that was unsealed recently, the former CEO knew about the cheating sometime between May 2014 and July 2015. Further, the report states that he willingly agreed along with other executives to continue with the cheat device in their diesel cars. In an emergency meeting conducted on July 27, 2015 in Germany, a presentation was made that revealed how the company had fooled the authorities so far and how it would continue at it. The report also alleges that Winterkorn asked his subordinates, including Oliver Schmidt, to not disclose this to the authorities at the same meeting. Oliver Schmidt was jailed for 7 years and a fine of USD 4,00,000 was imposed on him by a US judge last December.

Wolfgang Hatz - former Research & Development Head at Porsche, was arrested in Munich over his role in the emissions scandal in October 2017. Back in 2015, Volkswagen had admitted to cheating the emission norms by fitting a device that could detect when a vehicle was undergoing testing.