Skip to main content

VW Fires Back at Munich Prosecutors Following Raid

Volkswagen has said that it will take “every action” at its disposal against prosecutors who searched Jones Day.

Earlier this week, we read that a team of investigators from the Munich prosecutor’s office (among others) had conducted a raid of Audi’s two largest factories as well as a number offices and private residences associated with both VW and Audi.

Controversially, though, the raids also targeted Jones Day, the law firm that VW tasked with conducting an internal investigation of the dieselgate scandal.

Jones Day’s investigation exonerated members of VW’s management board, but did find wrongdoing by some high ranking officials. A summary of the investigation was handed over to US Department of Justice, but VW never published the full findings of the investigation.

VW has stated that it views the raid as a “clear breach of the principles of the rule of law laid down in the Code of Criminal Procedure,” according to a press release published on March 16.

In northern German Federal states prosecutors aren’t allowed to conduct searches of law firms, but there is no German-wide ruling on the matter, so there’s a grey zone there that the prosecutors’ offices could use to their advantage, according to Werner Beulke, a legal scholar who spoke to Automotive News.

Beulke also explained that Jones Day’s investigation may potentially not fall under the protection of client attorney privilege because there is a bit of interpretation to do when a law firm isn’t formally tasked with representing a particular individual.

Volkswagen, though, feels that precedent is behind it. Raiding a law firm breeches the rule of law, says VW, “this been expressly confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court in the case of another law firm.”

The post VW Fires Back at Munich Prosecutors Following Raid appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2mDXG1P
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more