Audi supervisory board members have meeting next week and they will discuss about the recent police raids in company factories, offices and the office of its law firm. They took place in connection with a German government investigation through company’s role in the diesel crisis, said Reuters. Primary purpose of board meeting’s is be to vote on if it’s better to ratify the actions of its CEO Rupert Stadler, a normally planned item of business.
Week ago, claimants from Munich guided searches in number of sites, including the top executives and the U.S. law firm Jones Day’s residences. He has been hired to guide an investigation into the scandal by VW itself. The raids are focused on finding evidence of who gave false information to U.S. regulators, which VW pleaded guilty for as a part of its deal with the Department of Justice couple of weeks ago.
Meanwhile, it is obscure what evidence police and prosecutors expected to find at Audi sites 16 months after Audi was first accused by the EPA of using undisclosed software in its 3.0-liter TDI models, even though some major questions in the investigation stayed without answer.
VW caught surprised Audi and its parent company with the searches, a long after the begining of the 3.0-liter crisis in November 2016
VW caught surprised Audi and its parent company with the searches, a long after the begining of the 3.0-liter crisis in November 2016. Wolfsburg castigated it’s law firm’s offices search, which isr the most surprising target of the investigation so far. Like many countries, it’s rare in Germany for prosecutors to order investigation of a law firm presenting the elementary subject of a criminal or civil search. The investigations also put the spotlight on Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, who until now had largely avoided the shadow cast by the diesel scandal, and the company itself, which was mostly untainted by the negative publicity of the diesel issue.
The sudden acceleration of events related to Audi’s own diesel woes comes weeks after the automaker reached a deal with U.S. regulators over the fate of some 80,000 Audi, VW and Porsche vehicles equipped with 3.0-liter V6 TDI engines. The recent searches have renewed fears that Audi has yet to absorb damage from the scandal, despite positive progress in its buyback and repair plans.
