4 former Volkswagen managers convicted in 'dieselgate' fraud
May 26 (UPI) -- A German court convicted four former Volkswagen managers of fraud on Monday and a decade after "Dieselgate" exposed deceptive devices installed in many Volkswagen models to pass emissions tests.
Jens Hadler was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison and formerly was Volkswagen's diesel engine development chief, the New York Times reported.
Hanno Jelden, a former VW engine electronics manager, received a sentence of two years and seven months in prison.
Defendants Heinz-Jakob Neusser, a former systems development manager, and a former emissions expert identified as "Thorsten D.," received suspended sentences of 15 months and 22 months in prison, respectively.
A judicial panel in Braunschweig, Germany, entered its verdicts in the court that is located close to Volkswagen's headquarters in nearby Wolfsburg.
Panel chairman Judge Christian Schutz called the defendants a "gang" and said they were guilty of "particularly serious" fraud, the New York Times reported.
He said Hadler knew of the emissions-testing defeat devices that manipulated software to ensure the vehicles would pass emissions tests since at least September 2007.
Only a relatively small number of people within Volkswagen knew of the device's existence, according to emails used as evidence in the case.
The trial lasted almost four years in the "dieselgate" emissions scandal that was exposed when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2015 reported many diesel-powered VW models contained deceptive emissions-monitoring devices, Politico reported.
The "defeat devices" detected when system emissions testing was underway and automatically adjusted engine performance to ensure the respective vehicles met environmental standards.
Berlin's Federal Court of Justice in 2020 ordered Volkswagen to pay up to $31,000 to each of about 60,000 German owners of diesel-powered VWs.
The automaker paid billions of dollars in settlements for installing defeat devices on about 10 million vehicles sold in the U.S., Germany and other markets around the globe.
Legal cases remain open against 31 other defendants, but former VW Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn is not among them due to health concerns, MarketWatch reported.
Winterkorn has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
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