A new, potentially very ugly scandal is rearing its head at Volkswagen Group in Germany following a dispute between the automaker and Bosnia-based parts supplier Prevent Group.
The public became aware of the affair in late July when VW asked German prosecutors to investigate the leak of illegal audio recordings from its internal meetings dedicated to a supplier dispute. The carmaker said it “has become the victim of an illegal eavesdropping attack” and filed a criminal complaint against a male VW procurement manager alleged to have made the secret recordings.
The company also suspended said employee pending an outcome of an investigation into eavesdropping. VW’s action came after the German edition of Business Insider broke a story which claims the unnamed VW employee is “probably responsible for one of the biggest wiretapping scandals in the history of the German economy.”
VW temporarily stopped production of the Passat in 2016 because Prevent Group withheld parts deliveries
Employee allegedly recorded 50 hours of VW internal meetings dedicated to eliminating Prevent Group as a supplier
For more than a year, the procurement manager is alleged to have recorded secret meetings of an internal Volkswagen unit entrusted with “controlling” (a.k.a. getting rid of) the undesirable Bosnian supplier of seat covers and gearbox parts. The Prevent Group fell into disgrace with the German auto giant in 2016, after two of its affiliates withheld parts deliveries to VW amid a price dispute. This forced the carmaker to temporarily halt output at six factories, affecting nearly 28,000 workers. As a result, VW decided to eliminate Prevent from its list of suppliers.
The publication cites excerpts of audio recordings from about 35 confidential meetings that took place between January 2017 and February 2018, with the tapes that total almost 50 hours painting a Machiavellian picture of VW Group politics. At one point, the secret group discusses how the company could leverage former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Kremlin ties to damage Prevent’s business in Russia.
That’s just a small part of the recordings which offer unprecedented insight into how high-ranking managers have eliminated a supplier. According to Business Insider, everything was approved at the highest level, with Ralf Brandstätter, who was recently appointed CEO of the VW Passenger Cars brand, regularly presenting the results to his boss, VW Group CEO Herbert Diess.
VW Passenger Cars CEO Ralf Brandstätter
VW employee alleged dead after body is found inside his burned-out car
Now comes the part where things get really strange and worthy of a crime thriller or a movie about the Mob. On the evening of August 10, a burned-out car was found on a field near Helmstedt in Lower Saxony with a dead body inside. Reports from Germany say there’s a high probability that the dead man is the alleged VW manager that secretly recorded the meetings.
According to Handelsblatt, Braunschweig public prosecutor’s spokeswoman Julia Meyer has confirmed that the torched car belonged to the VW employee. The prosecutor’s office added that it had not yet been possible to formally confirm the identity of the deceased. It also said there were no signs of “outside interference”on the man’s body which may have caused the death.
The prosecutor’s office is now looking at whether the death is linked to the manager at the center of the VW eavesdropping probe, and whether there are links to an arson attack on his house in May. That’s right, a major fire completely destroyed the VW manager’s house at the end of May but, fortunately for him, he was not home at the time. Experts from the police and fire brigade suspect arson.
A Prevent Group spokesman was quoted as saying by AutoNews Europe that the company has nothing to do with the taping of conversations. Meanwhile, Volkswagen said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation. As for the VW employee’s alleged death, Prevent Group labeled it as a “tragic event” while VW said it would be inappropriate to speculate on the matter given that it had not received official notification about a possible death of one of its employees.
