Dieselgate: new searches at Audi

AFP

AFP

Tuesday, February 6, 2018 06:39

UPDATE
Tuesday, February 6, 2018 06:42

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FRANKFURT | The German department of justice has again raided Tuesday of the sites of the manufacturer Audi in Germany, while the brand with the rings, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen group, is suspected of having manipulated the emissions of 210 000 of its diesel cars.

Several members of the public prosecution and the judicial police of the regional States of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ” were raided today a private home in Baden-Württemberg as well as offices and business premises of Audi on the sites of Ingoldstadt and Neckarsulm “, located in the south of the country, announced in a press release the prosecutor’s office in Munich.

The investigators are interested in the installation by the manufacturer of a software program used to ” manipulate the polluting emissions of diesel engines 3-litre V6 destined for the european market “, he added.

“We are cooperating fully with the authorities” responded by writing a spokesman for Audi solicited by the AFP, without giving further details.

The German department of justice investigation on suspicion of fraud and false advertising relating to at least 210.000 diesel vehicles put into circulation from 2009 on the european and american markets.

In the american portion of its investigations, the public prosecutor of Munich has now 14 suspects. “None of them is a present or past member of the executive board of Audi “, he says.

The justice had already searched the premises of Audi in march 2017, and in particular the siege of Ingolstadt, while it seeks to determine the responsibilities in the scandal of diesel engines-fixing that broke out at Volkswagen and then made oil stain in the automotive industry.

At the end of January, the prosecutor’s office in Munich has also ordered the search of six private apartments of the “employees or ex-employees” of Audi.

In recent months, two employees had been arrested. A former head of engine development Audi is still in remand prison, whereas an engineer has been released in November.

At the end of 2015, the Volkswagen group, owner, among others, Porsche and Audi, was recognized to have equipped 11 million of its diesel cars, of which about 600 000 the United States, a free software that can distort the test results to pollution control and concealing emissions in excess of sometimes up to 40 times the approved standards.