Korea Indicts Three Executives in Dieselgate Case

Korean authorities issue criminal indictments against three current and former Audi Volkswagen Korea executives for their alleged roles in emissions-test-rigging and false NVH certification.

Johannes Thammer, CEO of Audi VW Korea; Trevor Hill, former CEO of Audi VW now based in Germany; and former VW Korea CEO Park Dong-hoon, now CEO of Renault Samsung Motors, face criminal charges in the Seoul Central District Court for their alleged roles in selling rigged vehicles in Korea between 2011 and 2013, and in falsification of test data used to obtain compliance certification for emissions and NVH levels.

The charges involve alleged violations of Korea’s Clean Air Act and other regulatory statutes, including Federal Trade Commission advertising regulations.

Audi VW Korea says in a statement the German importer will comply fully in answering the charges, but declines further comment.

A Renault Samsung spokesman says the indictment of Park involves a matter that arose when he was a VW Korea executive and RSM is not involved in the VW emissions-rigging case.

Park appeared Jan. 5 at an industry event in Seoul accept Korean journalists’ 2017 Car of the Year Award for the SM6, the Korean-produced version of the midsize Renault Talisman.

Park was appointed CEO of RSM in March 2016. He joined the company in 2013 as vice president-sales after eight years as CEO of VW Korea.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office imposed a travel ban on Thammer and Park in August after arrest warrants had been denied by the Seoul Central District Court. Both had been questioned as suspects.

Hill’s indictment surprised many analysts following Dieselgate in Korea.

Hill was one of seven former Audi VW Korea executives summoned back to South Korea under “witness status” to answer questions about the emissions-rigging allegations. He was the second witness to travel from Germany to testify.

Hill, who had been CEO of Audi VW Korea from 2007 to 2012, traveled to Korea and appeared Oct. 20 before prosecutors in witness status. He claimed Audi VW in Germany did not order any executives at its Korean subsidiaries to install emissions-rigging software on any of its vehicles.

With substantial fines levied against Audi VW Korea and regulatory certificates pulled on 70% of VW vehicles, preventing their sales in Korea, it appeared the investigations quietly would wind down without indictments being issued.

However, it became apparent Jan. 6 that the prosecutor’s office and the court were seriously pursuing the criminal charges. On that day a former VW Korea emissions-certification manager surnamed Yoon was sentenced to 18 months in jail for allegedly submitting fraudulent emissions and NVH certification data to the Ministry of the Environment.

“The crime led to the collapse of trust in a time-honored global company and caused social and economic damage,” the court stated in its ruling against Yoon.

Yoon had been questioned as a suspect in July 2016 and was indicted the following month. He spent four months in detention before being sentenced last week.