Former Audi CEO convicted of fraud in diesel emissions scandal

A Munich court has handed former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler a suspended jail sentence of one year and nine months for fraud in the 2015 diesel emissions scandal that rocked Volkswagen Group. Stadler is the first Volkswagen board member to be sentenced in the affair, some four years after German prosecutors laid fraud charges against the executive. The court also delivered guilty verdicts against Audi’s former head of engine development Wolfgang Hatz and former lead diesel engineer Giovanni Pamio, handing them suspended jail sentences of two years, and one year and nine months, respectively. Audi and its parent company Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to having rigged diesel engines to cheat on emissions tests.