Volkswagen exec hunt goes global

Prosecutors have asked Interpol to help bring five former Volkswagen Group managers, engineers and executives to trial in the United States.

The US Justice Department last week filed a “red notice” with Interpol, the world’s police force, to arrest the people it believes were behind the $US20 billion Dieselgate emissions-cheating scandal.

The company has paid its dues, but that hasn’t covered Volkswagen Group personnel, one of whom already sits inside a Florida prison awaiting trial.

The DOJ attempted unsuccessfully to extradite the German citizens (they are all men) and now wants Interpol help to bring them to trial on charges of fraud and violating environmental laws.

Germany, however, regards it as a matter of principle not to allow its citizens to be extradited, but if any of the five leave Germany, they’ll be exposed to the long arm of the French-based Interpol.

They could also simply be extradited to the US if they are found in any country with an extradition treaty with the US. Every European Union country demands photo identification to check in to any hotel and that data is lodged with the local police authority.

They may not be safe in Germany for long, either, with the Braunschweig state prosecutor’s office still investigating them, and others.

Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reports that two of the suspects wanted by the DOJ and, now, Interpol include two very close confidantes of former Volkswagen Group CEO, Dr Martin Winterkorn, who resigned insisting he knew nothing of the scandal.

The others include two diesel engineers and a former Volkswagen brand board member for development, Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser.

The Braunschweig prosecutors, meanwhile, continue to investigate Dr Winterkorn on a possible fraud case and for manipulating share prices after failing to immediately disclose the nature and scale of the scandal.

His case won’t be helped by one former confidante, the Volkswagen Group’s former head of quality control and product security, Bernd Gottweis, telling Braunschweig prosecutors that Dr Winterkorn knew of the Dieselgate details in the middle of 2015, at least two months before it became public.

Unlike Gottweis, though, Dr Neusser has refused to cooperate with even the Braunschweig prosecutor’s office, much less the US DOJ.

US police caught the former head of the Volkswagen Group’s environment and engineering office, Oliver Schmidt, attempting to leave Florida after a family holiday in January this year. He is awaiting trial for conspiracy to defraud the United States.