dieselgate

Martin Winterkorn, former Volkswagen Group CEO, was last week charged for offences related to the company's Dieselgate saga. Prosecutors claim Winterkorn didn't inform customers about the company's emissions cheating software and failed to stop the company from using such software at the earliest possible instance. Due to the company's delayed reaction, it was hit with large punitive fines by both German and American authorities.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will pay out roughly US$800 million ($1.1 billion) in fines, fixes and compensation to settle claims some of its diesel engines cheated their way past emissions regulations. The company had been accused of using an emissions-testing defeat device, like the one used employed by the Volkswagen Group in its Dieselgate engines, which could detect when a car was undergoing bench-testing and alter its operation to emit a legal quantity of pollutants.

Rupert Stadler, ex-chief executive of Audi, has been released from custody, according to a new report from Reuters. The news outlet quotes a Munich court, which confirmed the executive was released on Tuesday. He was arrested in June, after prosecutors raised concerns he was trying to tamper with the ongoing Dieselgate investigation. An appeal for freedom was rejected in August, as the "danger of obstructing justice" still loomed large.

Recently-unsealed court filings are giving us a better insight into who at Volkswagen knew about what (and when they knew it) in the long-running Dieselgate emissions cheating saga. Recently unsealed documents, reported by Der Spiegel and filed by the Braunschweig prosecutor's office, say Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen Group CEO at the time, and Herbert Diess, current VW Group CEO and then-head of the Volkswagen brand, were present at a meeting about the cheating on July 27, 2015.

Ex-Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi research and development chief, Wolfgang Hatz, has been released from pre-trial detention under a strict set of conditions designed to stop him fleeing Germany. According to reports in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the ex-engine boss was bailed for €3 million ($4.7 million) earlier this week. Along with that hefty sum, Hatz was forced to relinquish his passport, and has been ordered not to contact other accused parties or witnesses to the case.