Police raid VW HQ as U.S. chief admits he knew of problems in 2014
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Police raid VW HQ as U.S. chief admits he knew of problems in 2014
German police descended on Volkswagen headquarters Thursday, carrying away files and hard disks in their investigation into a massive pollution cheating scandal engulfing the auto giant. Private apartments were also raided in Volkswagen’s home base of Wolfsburg and other cities, prosecutors told AFP, as police sought to secure documents and digital data that could point to those responsible for the deception of global proportions.
VW is the Lance Armstrong of the auto industry.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.
The raids came as Volkswagen’s U.S. chief Michael Horn faced a grilling before Congress, where he told a committee that he was aware more than a year ago that the group’s cars possibly breached pollution rules. But Horn said he did not know until “a couple (of) days” before September 3 that “defeat devices” had been deliberately installed in the vehicles to help them cheat pollution tests. The German auto giant was thrust into the deepest crisis of its history after revealing that it equipped 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide with software that switches the engine to a low-emissions mode during tests.
At that point of time, I had no understanding what a defeat device was. And I had no indication whatsoever that a defeat device could have been in our cars.
Michael Horn
