FRANKFURT AM MAIN: Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler has been arrested in connection with parent company Volkswagen’s “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal, German prosecutors said yesterday.
The dramatic development comes a week after Munich prosecutors raided Stadler’s home after charging him with fraud and the falsification of documents that allowed diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software to be sold to European customers.
Prosecutors said the arrest was justified because of the “risk of concealment of evidence”.
“For Mr Stadler, the presumption of innocence continues to apply,” a spokesman said in a statement.
Stadler’s arrest is the most high-profile yet in the dieselgate crisis, which started when the Volkswagen group admitted in 2015 to equipping some 11 million diesels worldwide with “defeat devices” designed to dupe pollution tests. VW’s luxury subsidiary Audi has long faced suspicions that its engineers developed the software used in the scam. – AFP