Former Volkswagen boss finally charged

German prosecutors have finally announced their intention to charge former Volkswagen Group chairman, Dr Martin Winterkorn, with fraud over the Dieselgate emissions-cheating scandal.

Dr Winterkorn and four other senior Volkswagen Group executives will be charged by the Braunschweig prosecutor’s office for fraud and for violating competition law.

Whilst the other executives have not been named by the prosecutor’s office, they are believed to include former Volkswagen Group director of powertrain Heinz-Jakob Neusser, former head of diesel development Falko Rudolph and ex-diesel developer Rudolph Krebs. All have been fired by Volkswagen.

Yet Dr Winterkorn, 71, is the biggest fish yet caught in the Dieselgate net and prosecutors insist his case of fraud is particularly serious. He resigned in September 2015 after trying to battle through the scandal over the emissions-cheating software fitted to his cars.

He had already been charged with conspiracy by the United States Department of Justice, but Germany does not often extradite its citizens to America, so he was considered safe providing he stayed at home.

The DOJ has also charged Dr Winterkorn of conspiracy. He was last month sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose the fraud scandal soon enough.

German prosecutors will allege that Dr Winterkorn was made aware of the Dieselgate cheat on May 25, 2015, almost 16 months before it was made public by the failure of Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” models to pass independent US emissions testing.

Prosecutors admitted “particularly serious” cases of fraud could lead to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors gave no indications about when charges might be filed for the other 36 Volkswagen Group employees they are investigating over the scandal.

Dieselgate has so far cost the Volkswagen Group at least €29 billion in fines and penalties, with even more lawsuits waiting in the wings.