German Authorities Raid Porsche Offices

Prosecutors, police and tax authorities have raided offices and homes in Germany in an investigation into irregular payments allegedly made to senior Porsche officials.

The Tuesday raids were focused on offices at Porsche’s headquarters in Zuffenhausen and its engineering base in Weissach.

Among the accused are six current employees, including several Porsche executives, according to a statement by the Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office.

“We are investigating whether employees of Porsche could be held responsible for bribery and false statements,” lead prosecutor Heiner Römhild says.

Authorities say Porsche may have made secret payments to certain senior executives as a possible coverup of illegal dealings.

Porsche says it is cooperating with the investigation.

The raids, which involved 10 lawyers from the Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office and 167 members of the state criminal police of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart police and tax investigators from Stuttgart, Aalen, Karlsruhe and Ludwigsburg, also were conducted at private residences of Porsche employees in Karlsruhe, Ostalbkreis and Pforzheim.

Among them was the residence of the former head of the Porsche works council, Uwe Hück.

Although not identified as one of the accused, Hück is claimed to have received secret payments beyond his regular income without declaration to German tax authorities.