Former Audi CEO sentenced over emissions scandal

A German court on Tuesday gave Rupert Stadler a suspended jail sentence and ordered him to a $1.2 million fine in connection with Volkswagen’s 2015 diesel emissions scandal. Stadler, who pleaded guilty last month, is the highest-ranking official in the company to be convicted in the scheme. Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, has admitted to using illegal software on some vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. The fine money will go to the German government and charities. Stadler also received a 21-month jail sentence, which the court suspended for three years.

Has anyone else been charged? The Munich court on Tuesday also sentenced former head of engineering Wolfgang Hatz and an unnamed former Audi engineer to suspended prison sentences and fines. Authorities in the United States and Germany have charged former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, a German, with fraud. But Germany does not regularly extradite citizens to countries outside the European Union, and proceedings against Winterkorn have stalled due to his poor health. 

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Warren Cole Smith’s report about the Volkswagen scandal.