Ferdinand Piëch, Volkswagen chairman, on Wednesday denied having known of a big bribery scandal at the carmaker during his reign as chief executive, even though he admitted having had close contact with the protagonists of the affair.
Mr Piëch, giving evidence as a witness in the investigation into the €2.5m ($3.7m) scandal, said he had at “no point been aware” of the illegal special bonuses paid to a works council leader or of luxury holidays and sex parties paid for by VW during his stint as chief executive from 1993 to 2002.
He told the court in Braunschweig, northern Germany: “If I had heard of such things I would have acted to stop them”.
State prosecutors indicated after the 100-minute court hearing that it was unlikely that charges would be placed against Mr Piëch over the affair. Joachim Geyer, a prosecutor, told the Financial Times he would be “very surprised” if an official investigation were launched based on Wednesday’s evidence. Prosecutors had last year raised this as a possibility.
The 70-year-old Mr Piëch, a figurehead of German industry who retains strong influence over both VW and Porsche, the luxury carmaker, showed signs of nerves as he took the witness stand. Later he was more relaxed, at one point joking with lawyers over the special treatment he thought should be given to owners of Lamborghinis, one of the VW group’s luxury brands.
Mr Piëch insisted he did not know of the wrongdoing because he had delegated responsibility for employee relations to Peter Hartz, the former VW personnel chief who was found guilty last year of endorsing illegal payments worth €2.5m to Klaus Volkert, the former works council head currently on trial in Braunschweig. “I didn’t deal with such details,” he said dismissively on several occasions.
He had more important things to deal with, he added, such as bringing the company back from the “catastrophic situation” when he took over in 1993, when “inefficient production and too many staff” were causing huge losses.
Despite denying knowledge of the scandal, Mr Piëch admitted that Mr Hartz had told him of plans to increase Mr Volkert’s financial benefits to those of a “top manager”, in order to retain Mr Volkert’s support for company restructuring. It was these benefits that were determined as illegal in Mr Hartz’s trial, but Mr Piëch was unperturbed Wednesday by prosecutor suggestions he must have known of Mr Hartz’s methods. “He never told me,” he insisted.
He admitted having regular contacts with Mr Volkert, including an hour-long meeting every year.
He also confirmed signing a confidential letter to Mr Volkert confirming an increase in pension entitlements, but suggested he had not read the document. He said he had over the years signed “tens of thousands” of such letters.
