Volkswagen exec Hatz freed on bail
As the Dieselgate saga continues, former Volkswagen group powertrain boss is finally releasedGerman media reports say former Volkswagen Audi Group powertrain boss Wolfgang Hatz has been released on bail.
The former Porsche director of development, and a key player in Audi’s engine development during the Volkswagen Group’s #Dieselgate scandal, had been held without charge in a Munich jail since September last year (2017).
The Munich public prosecutor’s office has yet to confirm the release; however, it is now being widely reported.
While Hatz’s release includes conditions like posting a €3 million surety, surrendering both his passport and German identity card, wearing an ankle bracelet and reporting to Stuttgart police twice a day, his former Audi diesel-development subordinate, Italian Giovanni Pamio, remains in custody.
Hatz has also been banned from having any contact with any other suspects in the Munich public prosecutor’s Dieselgate investigation.
The timing of Hatz’s release appears related to the arrest last week of Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler, while he recently underwent surgery under guard and remains ill.
Little else had fundamentally changed in his case since the German Federal Court earlier this month denied his claim that he was being held unjustly. German law allows suspects to be held indefinitely if the case against them can be shown to be strong and to protect ongoing investigations.
Stadler, who was suspended by the Audi Supervisory Board last week and temporarily replaced by Audi sales and marketing director Abraham Schot, was arrested at his home.
Munich prosecutors released a statement insisting it had wiretapped Stadler’s home phone and had recorded him organizing a meeting to tamper with Dieselgate evidence.
The Audi boss was first questioned on June 20 but is now being held in custody without charge in the Bavarian city of Augsburg while his lawyers assess the evidence against him.
Stadler is being investigated for fraud and, according to public prosecutor sources, for threatening to sack or suspend an Audi employee who had cooperated with the investigation.
Prosecutors had initially investigated Stadler (55), over allegations that he did nothing to intervene to stop the Dieselgate scandal when he discovered it in 2015.
It is alleged that he manipulated public records by knowingly selling cars that did not comply with certification requirements.
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