Hanover. Conti is serious!

Continental due to the ongoing investigations into the diesel emissions crisis, separates from his long-time CFO Wolfgang Schäfer.

The supervisory board agreed in a special meeting that the 62-year-old resign from the executive board of the auto supplier with immediate effect, it said on Wednesday evening Continental in Hannover.

Continental CFO has to go

Schäfer had been on the management floor since 2010. Most recently, he was also responsible for controlling and compliance with legal standards.

Prosecutors have also been keeping an eye on Conti engineers for a long time in the further processing of the emissions scandal, which was first uncovered at VW in 2015. There were several raids. At the same time, the supplier launched its own internal investigation. Their results should now be the main reason that Schäfer has to go. His contract would actually have run until the end of 2024.

Continental: “Deficits in ongoing education”

As part of the examination of possible joint responsibility for the emergence of “Dieselgate” through illegal shutdown software, “deficits in the ongoing investigation” emerged, said Continental. On a provisional basis, CEO Nikolai Setzer is to take over the departments of Schäfer, the tasks on the level below will be continued by the manager Katja Dürrfeld for the time being.

With regard to the current status of the legal proceedings and a triggered immediate connection with the “personnel change”, Conti did not want to be outwardly. A decision has yet to be made about Schäfer’s permanent successor. Chairman of the Supervisory Board Wolfgang Reitzle affirmed: “We are resolving the present issue consistently and in full and are cooperating wholeheartedly with the Hanover public prosecutor.”

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The investigations of the prosecutors revolve around the role of some Conti employees in the development of suspected fraudulent software for engine control units. The allegations go back to 2006. Investigations were also underway against its competitor Bosch.

Continental does not want to have done anything illegal

In the case of Continental there is a suspicion that former and partly still active employees of the former Siemens Autotechnik subsidiary VDO – taken over in 2007 for a double-digit billion amount – could be involved in the affair of millions of manipulated exhaust gas data. YOU should therefore have accepted the order for the control of the 1.6-liter output of the scandal engine EA 189 in the knowledge that VW wanted to pursue fraudulent intentions with it.

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Continental rejected any involvement in illegal activities. After a wave of searches in several companies and federal states last year, what would be the respective valid exhaust gas limit values ​​”can be observed in principle”. According to the public prosecutor’s office, it was about aiding and abetting fraud in seven engineers and two project managers. There were also investigations into false certification.

The criminal proceedings in your Braunschweig are a central point of reference. In addition to the former head of the Volkswagen Group, Martin Winter, numerous other people are charged there. The fraud process started there in September, but Winterkorn has so far been left out due to medical problems.

Did Conti “meet VW’s wishes”?

It will also be followed up on indications that the documentation of the software was influenced, it said at the judicial authority. Employees of what would later become the Conti Automotive division could have “complied with VW’s wishes” and manufactured a prohibited defeat device. The investigations have not yet been concluded.

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The VW diesel affair first came to light in the United States in September 2015. The world’s largest auto company had tampered cleaning systems built into vehicles, dying in tests that show lower nitrogen oxide emissions that were lower than on public roads. The group plunged into a deep crisis that has now cost well over 30 billion euros. Many civil and criminal proceedings followed – the entire auto industry lost a lot of confidence. (dpa)