It was allowed to be one of the longest press releases in Volkswagen history. However, the explosive of the good three pages, which the Volkswagen Group outlined on Wednesday evening, is above all in a single sentence: "Whether and to what extent Mr. Winterkorn has taken note of this note at that time, is not documented."The short sentence informs about that the then Group Boss Martin Winterkorn already in the spring of 2014 – about one and a half years before the outbreak of the diesel scandal – from the root of the problem had to know. But whether he read the note in his weekend post and whether he brops his explanation, just "not documented".
When did Winterkorn knew what?
The note in Winterkorn’s Post completed inconsistencies in the exhaust gas behavior of the diesel engine EA 189, which emerged from a study presented in May 2014. The analysis should make the US residents in progress and bring the Affare to eleven million manipulated corporate vehicles worldwide. For some media, the matter is now clear: Winter grain was already informed for the exhaust scandal. This reading but is not mandatory. You can accept this, just can not prove it. Already not with the existence of the note in the weekend mail. But the socket of the Pandora is now open. Even before the press release, parts of a good 120-side complaint, with which Volkswagen defends itself against investor rugs, which the Group in the knowledge of the scandal of the scandal has informed the financial world about Spat.
For months, the Federal Finance Supervision of this question. As with all other investigations to the exhaust crisis, nothing is not concrete here. "The exam will take months more," said a spokeswoman on Thursday. The result was not allowed to lie on the table at the beginning of June 2016. Nevertheless, it could be brezig for winter grain. For even if the Group argues that even at the beginning of September 2015 the Affare still seemed to be limited to the US, it is now confirmed for the first time by the Group that the root of the problem was already in May 2014 to a process for the top boss. This had winter grain, which attributed to manipulated diesel vehicles shortly after the scandal of the scandal, was always covered vehemently. It also remains questionable if and how he realized the thing, because that is "not documented".
For Winterkorn, the presumption of innocence applies. In doing so, he did not took the passage in his weekend lectures at all. But alone the fact that a written process came to him so early manovies him in a Zwickmuhle manovries him. Either he can not remember. Or he took note of it, but kept it for day business. Or he explained it to the chief thing, which seems little plausible, since "nothing documented" is. All variants offer attack surface. Or it’s even worse and winter grain already knew everything.