Staff Writer
Rupert Stadler, the former CEO of Audi, was found guilty of fraud in connection with the diesel emissions crisis at the automaker on Tuesday. He is now the highest-ranking official to be found responsible for vehicles that cheated on emissions tests using illegal software.
Stadler entered a guilty plea last month, and as part of an arrangement between his attorneys, the judge, and the prosecution, the Munich regional court sentenced him to 21 months of suspended prison time and ordered him to pay a sizable fine, according to the German news agency dpa.
Even after the scandal became widely known, the former chief of Volkswagen’s luxury division acknowledged responsibility and expressed regret for not keeping hacked cars off the market.
In the two and a half year trial in Munich, three lower level managers also accepted plea agreements.
Prosecutors claimed that Stadler allowed cars with modified software to be marketed even after the plot was discovered by the US Environmental Protection Agency in September 2015. Stadler has been charged with fraud and fraudulent certification.
Due to the incident, Volkswagen was forced to pay more than $30 billion in penalties and settlements, and two American executives were imprisoned.
It accelerated the transition to electric vehicles by forcing the whole auto industry away from its reliance on diesel engines, which had previously accounted for roughly half of the European auto market.
