Former Porsche CEO Charged for Failed Bid to Take Over WV

Former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and former CFO Holger Haerter were charged over failed bid to take over VW.

In 2008 Porsche mislead investors by denying plans to buy VW. In October 2008, the automaker confirmed the rumors causing billions of euros of damages. After three years of investigations the indictment was filed.

“The investigation found the suspects in February 2008 at the latest made the decision to increase Porsche’s share in Volkswagen to 75 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to prepare a takeover,” said Claudia Krauth, spokeswoman for Stuttgart prosecutors.

Former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and former CFO Holger Haerter were charged with market manipulation in the failed bid to take over VW. Krauth said that the breach of trust charges were dropped as they weren’t backed by evidence. The allegations regarding information-based market manipulation dropped from 14 to 5 during the probe.

VW abandoned the merger last September, citing unquantifiable legal risks, including lawsuits by short-sellers in the United States, who claim that Porsche secretly piled up VW shares and later caused investors to lose more than US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion).
Porsche still has to deal with civil suits in a Braunschweig court seeking more than 4 billion euro, and other cases are pending in the US and UK courts.