Prosecutors Raid Porsche Offices and Employee Properties Over Alleged Diesel Emission Cheating
This is the first time Porsche has been targeted in these ‘Dieselgate’ raids.
Police raided 10 locations connected to three current and former Porsche employees on Wednesday, reports The Local. These raids are connected to the German government's ongoing investigation into auto manufacturers cheating on diesel emissions tests.
The raids took place in the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Prosecutors and 160 police officers were involved.
"The three accused consist of one member of Porsche's executive board and one senior manager. The third accused no longer works for Porsche," prosecutors told The Local.
Porsche confirmed that the raids had taken place, as well as the Porsche offices in Stuttgart and Audi offices in Ingolstadt. While Audi and parent company Volkswagen has been raided before, as well as rivals Daimler and BMW, Porsche has not been targeted in such raids until now. Though Porsche has denied culpability in the Dieselgate scandal, it has suspected that such raids could take place since last year, reports Automotive News.
It is suspected that the executive board member who prosecutors referred to may be none other than outgoing VW CEO Matthias Mueller, who was the head of Porsche from 2010 to 2015 before replacing Martin Winterkorn at Volkswagen just after the company admitted to cheating on diesel emission tests.
Though his aim was to lead VW out of the scandal, Mueller himself soon came under investigation for allegedly failing to disclose information about the scandal quickly enough to shareholders. Mueller was himself replaced on Friday by Herbert Diess.
