MUNICH (Reuters) -Former Audi boss Rupert Stadler is ready to make a confession about his role in the diesel emissions scandal in exchange for a suspended sentence and a payment of 1.1 million euros ($1.21 million), his defence team said on Wednesday.
The former CEO was charged in 2020 over his role in the scandal after parent group Volkswagen and Audi admitted in 2015 to having used illegal software to cheat on emissions tests. He had previously rejected the allegations.
Stadler’s defence team said a statement would be made in two weeks.
The trial is one of the most prominent court proceedings in the aftermath of the diesel scandal at Volkswagen and its subsidiary Audi. Revelations that millions of emissions tests had been manipulated emerged in September 2015.
According to prosecutors, engineers manipulated engines in such a way that they complied with legal exhaust emission values on the test bench but not on the road. Stadler was accused of failing to stop the sale of the manipulated cars after the scandal became known.
($1 = 0.9063 euros)
(Reporting by Jörn Poltz; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Friederike Heine)
