VW corruption affair

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The VW corruption affair is a bribery affair that became known in July 2005 . From the management of the Volkswagen Group , members of the works council have been bribed with financial benefits, luxury trips and services from prostitutes and their decisions have been corrupted .

The former HR director Peter Hartz , the former works council chairman Klaus Volkert , and Helmuth Schuster , the former HR director of the VW subsidiary Škoda , were convicted.

Helmuth Schuster

The VW affair was set in motion by the immediate dismissal of Helmuth Schuster as HR director of the VW subsidiary Škoda , as he was allegedly a partner in supplier companies with which Volkswagen concluded contracts. Even Klaus Volkert said to have been a partner. The public prosecutor's office is investigating Schuster on suspicion of breach of trust and fraud . The Škoda man was considered a confidante of the then VW HR manager Peter Hartz . In the meantime it turned out that the accusations made by Volkswagen in 2005 in the Schuster case are unfounded. Even the public prosecutor could not prove any misconduct. The facts that led to the alleged dismissal without notice were incorrect. It can therefore be assumed that there was no legal reason for dismissal without notice and that Schuster is employed at Volkswagen in a position that has not been given notice.

On February 11, 2010, it became known that the Wolfsburg district court had issued a penalty order against Helmuth Schuster for breach of trust, incitement to breach of trust, aiding and abetting fraud and corruption.

He was sentenced to 10 months suspended sentence in September 2010. The court found Schuster guilty of bribery, infidelity and aiding and abetting fraud. The 56-year-old has to pay a total of 15,000 euros as probation in 15 monthly installments.

Klaus Volkert

VW works council chairman Klaus Volkert stepped on the staff meeting back in late June 2005, the VW AG. Klaus Volkert was arrested on 21 November 2006 and sat for alleged blackout and influencing witnesses and co-accused until December 12, 2006 in custody . On December 12, 2006, Volkert's arrest warrant was overturned. There is no further risk of obscuration, since Volkert has made a credible, comprehensive confession before the investigating judge . Among other things, he organized prostitutes for oral sex at VW parties. More than a year later, on 22 February 2008 which condemned Landgericht Braunschweig former council chairman for instigating and abetting the breach of trust and breach of the Industrial Relations Act to a term of imprisonment of two years and nine months. The Federal Court of Justice in Leipzig rejected the application for an appeal on September 17, 2009 as unfounded; the judgment is thus final.

Peter Hartz

A magazine report also targeted the then HR director Peter Hartz , who is known as the originator of the Hartz concept . VW immediately denied this report, however, saying that the public prosecutor's office was not investigating him.

On July 8, 2005, Hartz offered to resign. He claimed that he was not involved in the affair himself, but several of his former confidants, such as the former Prime Minister of Lower Saxony Sigmar Gabriel (SPD), were suspected of being involved in the affair. On July 13, 2005, the four-member presidium of the VW supervisory board unanimously recommended that Hartz accept the offer to resign as HR director. According to the company’s announcement, Hartz left his post prematurely, waiving any contractual severance pay , and he would retire at the end of the calendar year.

Since the beginning of September 2006 the public prosecutor's office has been investigating him on suspicion of infidelity. Hartz was sentenced on January 25, 2007 to a suspended sentence of two years and a fine of 576,000 euros (corresponding to 360 daily rates of 1,600 euros). Volkert is said to have received so-called special bonus payments of around 1.95 million euros through Hartz from 1994 to 2005 in addition to his salary.

Klaus-Joachim Gebauer

The dismissed VW HR manager Klaus-Joachim Gebauer , who, according to Peter Hartz, was assigned to the management board's liaison to look after the members of the works council, tried to portray himself as a victim of the affair in the trial against his dismissal. In letters to the court, which tellingly appeared in the media beforehand, Gebauer raised serious allegations, above all against Klaus Volkert, but also against Peter Hartz. He reported in detail about his special tasks and freedoms as a supervisor for the members of the works council. These statements are the subject of investigations which his accused have contradicted or avoided public statements.

Gebauer was sentenced to one year probation by the Braunschweig regional court on February 22, 2008 in connection with the VW corruption affair. The Federal Court of Justice in Leipzig rejected the application for an appeal on September 17, 2009 as unfounded; the judgment is thus final.

Other suspected cases

Public prosecutor's office is investigating MPs

In October 2005, the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office applied for the immunity of the Lower Saxony SPD member Günter Lenz and the SPD member of the Bundestag Hans-Jürgen Uhl to be lifted . On January 4, 2007, Uhl was charged with aiding and abetting embezzlement in two cases and making five false affidavits. He denied these allegations as vehemently as any involvement in the brothel visits . Accordingly, he took action against reports in the local press during the 2005 Bundestag election campaign . On May 29, 2007, Uhl announced his resignation and publicly admitted the allegations made against him. No statement was made to the investigating authorities . On June 1st, Hans-Jürgen Uhl resigned his mandate. The Wolfsburg District Court sentenced him to a fine of 39,200 euros on June 14, 2007 after a comprehensive confession. One day later, on June 15, Günter Lenz resigned from his state parliament mandate.

In the meantime, the affair continued to expand. After the former deputy chairman of the works council of Volkswagen AG, Bernd Sudholt, who was also a member of the Wolfsburg City Council for the SPD until 2006, was exposed to massive criticism from within his own ranks, he in turn attacked leading Wolfsburg SPD politicians. He raised serious allegations against the (meanwhile resigned) chairman of the Wolfsburg SPD council group Ralf Krüger. After his resignation as authorized representative of IG Metall Wolfsburg, he is a manager at VW Coaching GmbH. According to Sudholt in a letter, Krüger only received this position, as well as a VIP card in the Wolfsburg Volkswagen Arena , because of his good relationships and the protection of people like him (Sudholt). As a result of this event, the so-called VIP card affair develops , in which, in addition to the top management of the city of Wolfsburg, leading politicians from the parliamentary groups represented in the council are involved. The group of people affected is said to have purchased VIP tickets from the 90 percent VW subsidiary VfL Wolfsburg at extremely favorable conditions. First of all, the Braunschweig public prosecutor initiated preliminary investigations. On July 24, 2012 Maik Nahrstedt was sentenced to a fine of 4,800 euros for inciting unfaithfulness in the VIP card affair.

Political background

On January 22nd, 2005, Work & Social Justice - Die Wahlalternative ( WASG ) was constituted as a “contemporary workers' party”. The SPD suffered a severe defeat in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on May 22, 2005 . On July 1, 2005, Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder again put a vote of confidence in Parliament, which withheld it. The first scandalous information was published. With the dissolution of the Bundestag on July 21, 2005 (see also vote of confidence II ), the election campaign for the Bundestag election on September 18, 2005 began a year earlier . The heavy losses of Agenda 2010 SPD were followed by a first grand coalition ( Merkel I cabinet ). On December 9, 2005, Gazprom announced that Schröder had accepted a position at Nord Stream AG .

The links between the SPD and Volkswagen were diverse and close. The IG Metall had in any German operation more power than at Volkswagen. As Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Gerhard Schröder was a member of the VW Group's supervisory board from 1990 to 1998.

Since February 2003 , a coalition of the CDU and FDP under Christian Wulff has provided the Lower Saxony state government , which had previously been formed from May 1990 by a coalition of the SPD and the Greens.

Difference between employee representation affairs: VW and Siemens

The Siemens AG is another company in which the Special Commission "Amigo" the prosecutor (Nürnberg-Fürth) in connection with an employee representation determined. On February 14, 2007, Wilhelm Schelsky , the chairman of the Working Group of Independent Employees (AUB), was arrested. As a management consultant, Schelsky received payments from Siemens in the amount of at least 14 million euros until the end of 2006, for which no consideration can be identified. It emerged that Siemens had paid AUB at least 2.5 million euros through Schelsky. In contrast to VW, not only individual works council members were bribed, but it is also determined whether an entire counter-organization against DGB unions was co-financed by Siemens.

Peter Blomberg from Transparency International Germany considers the Siemens affair to be “even more fundamental” than the VW corruption affair. In the broadcast of the Tagesschau on March 13, 2007, he did not want to condemn Siemens in view of the ongoing investigations. But he pointed out that there was a difference between trying, on the one hand, to vote favorably on a works council, as at VW, and on the other hand, to finance “a countervailing power to the union”. If Siemens had given AUB grants, the "current law would have been reduced to absurdity because it would turn the system of co-determination off its hinges".

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Selenz : Black Book VW: how managers, politicians and trade unionists plunder the company . Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-8218-5612-4
  • Rainer Dombois: The VW Affair - Lesson on the Risks of German Co-Management? In: Industrial Relations , Vol. 16/2009, H. 3, pp. 207-231. [1]

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Taz.de: Penal order against Helmuth Schuster , accessed on February 12, 2010
  2. ↑ a b BGH 5th Criminal Senate, decision of September 17, 2009, Az. 5 StR 521/08
  3. ↑ Arne Daniels, Johannes Röhrig: Gebauer, where are the women? In: stern. No. 40, September 29, 2005, pp. 26-40.
  4. ↑ https://dejure.org/dienste/vernetzung/rechtsprechung?Gericht=LG%20Braunschweig&Datum=22.02.2008&Aktenzeichen=6%20KLs%2020%2F07
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from June 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from June 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160131214922/http://www.braunschweiger-zeitung.de/lokales/sudholt-sprengt-wolfsburger-spd-id186462.html
  8. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160131214923/http://www.braunschweiger-zeitung.de/lokales/vip-karten-affaere-staatsanwalt-ermittelt-id215739.html
  9. ↑ "Correct if it is wrong" Wolfsburger-Nachrichten, July 7, 2007, accessed August 2, 2017 (1.50 €)
  10. ↑ Public prosecutor demanded a fine of almost 30,000 euros Wolfsburger Allgemeine, on July 24, 2012, accessed on August 2, 2017
  11. ↑ Die Wolfsburg Der Stern, July 23, 2005, accessed on August 2, 2017
  12. ^ Siemens suspected of being felt (tagesschau.de archive) March 13, 2007