Frankfurt (Germany), 26 May (LaPresse) – In the criminal trial relating to the so-called “Dieselgate” scandal, four former Volkswagen executives have been found guilty of fraud. The commercial criminal division of the Braunschweig Regional Court sentenced two defendants to several years in prison, while two former employees received suspended sentences. The prosecutor described three of the men as guilty and requested three and four years in prison, respectively. The fourth defendant was found guilty of aiding and abetting, with a request for a two-year suspended sentence. The Dieselgate scandal came to light in September 2015, when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported the manipulation of diesel car emissions tests. Volkswagen then admitted to falsifying the test results. A few days later, the group's CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned and the German car manufacturer slipped into one of the biggest crises in its history, costing around €33 billion to date.
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