COURT RULING ON AUDI VOLKSWAGEN KOREA

[Anchor Lead]

The Korean court handed down stiff penalty to Audi Volkswagen Korea for importing and selling vehicles that do not meet the emission standards. The executives in charge were sentenced to prison and the local unit of the German automaker was hit with fine of 26 billion won. The sentencing came three years after the case was sent to trial.

[Pkg]

Volkswagen set off the worldwide 'Diesel Gate' in 2015 after installing an emission fabrication software in its diesel automobiles. The software manipulated the emission data of harmful nitrogen oxide so that the emission level would show lower levels in tests. Sometimes, the actual figures were much higher than the permissible level. The data fabrication was carried out in Korea as well. More than 100,000 vehicles with false data were sold locally. The Korean prosecution's indictment of the case was three years ago. And yesterday the court found the defendants guilty on most of the charges. The court handed down a sentence of two years in prison to former Volkswagen Korea CEO Park Dong-hoon and one-year imprisonment to another executive, surnamed Yun, in charge of obtaining approval from the local government. Four former and incumbent executives who were indicted along with the two were also found guilty. The court explained that Park did not follow the law when he was well aware of the importance of emission regulation and added that heavy punishment is inevitable as he consistently gave excuses and denied charges. Audi Volkswagen Korea was also slapped with a fine of 26 billion won. The Seoul court admonished the company for focusing only on maximizing profits without having any intention to abide by the laws in Korea. The court also said that vehicles with fabricated emission data caused incalculable damage on the environment. Meanwhile, former AVK chief Johannes Thammer left Korea in 2017 after his indictment but did not return to attend his court hearing since, forcing his trial to be postponed indefinitely.