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Ministry of Environment made a criminal accusation against President Johannes Thammer of Audi Volkswagen Korea for submitting insufficient business plan on correcting flaws (recall).
Audi Volkswagen Korea is saying that it will cooperate with Ministry of Environment as much as it can by improving its business plan and adding causes of flaws to its plan once German Headquarters finds the causes that have caused flaws.
Ministry of Environment made an announcement on the 19th that it has made criminal accusation against President Johannes Thammer for disregarding to submit its business plan even though Ministry of Environment had ordered Audi Volkswagen Korea, which had manipulated reduction device for exhaust gas, to correct its flaws (recall). Ministry of Environment is looking into accusing Audi Volkswagen Korea’s Corporate also.
On the 23rd of November of last year, Ministry of Environment had ordered recalls against Audi Volkswagen Korea. Although Audi Volkswagen Korea submitted its business plan to Ministry of Environment on the last day of submission, it did not submit any causes that had caused flaws because its Volkswagen Headquarters did not confirm any plans on recalls. Even on its plan to improve flaws, which is the main information, Audi Volkswagen Korea replied that software to improve South Korean vehicles is not prepared yet.
Because Audi Volkswagen Korea did not submit any important information in its business plan even though it received an order for recalls, Ministry of Environment submitted indictment against President Johannes Thammer to Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office in the afternoon of the 19th. According to Section 51 of Clean Air Conservation Act, a person or a business that receives an order from Minister of Ministry of Environment to correct flaws needs to set up a plan to correct flaws and receive an approval. If a person or a business violates this order, imprisonment of 5 years or less or fine of $24,875 (30 million KRW) or less is imposed.
An Audi vehicle is being tested at Incheon National Institute of Environmental Research’s Traffic Environmental Research Institute
They had explained information that is more detailed compared to initial business plan to people related to Ministry of Environment. It is heard that Audi Volkswagen Korea is going to submit supplemented business plan on recall based on this explanation. However Ministry of Environment is certain that it will not drop this case even if it collects additional opinions from Audi Volkswagen Korea.
Ministry of Environment is explaining that it is making a criminal accusation based on dishonesty on Audi Volkswagen Korea’s plan on recall and not manipulating reduction device and is making a legal action since it is a case that states for punishment.
Audi Volkswagen Korea is taking a stance that it will cooperate with Ministry of Environment as much as it can. However it is stating that it cannot prepare any particular measures in South Korea since even its German Headquarters cannot find any causes that have caused such flaws.
“Although we are doing best in our effort to solve issues regarding exhaust gas by inviting top engineers from German Headquarters to South Korea and explaining regards to this issue, recall is getting delayed since German Headquarters is not putting out any plans to solve this problem.” said a representative of Audi Volkswagen Korea. “Recalls are also getting delayed in other countries such as the U.S., Germany and others and we are going to decide on detailed schedule by discussing with Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Environment and others if a solution comes out sometime during first half of 2016.”
Ministry of Environment is looking into making additional criminal accusations regards to cases on exceeding indoor certification standards per Clean Air Conservation Act and non-certification on manufactured vehicles. If these regulations are violated, imprisonment of 7 years or less or fine of $82,916 (100 million KRW) or less can be imposed.
Although Ministry of Environment’s corporate attorney had stated that Audi Volkswagen Korea is not relevant towards these cases, Ministry of Environment has decided to receive legal advices from Korean Government Legal Service and make final decisions based on results.
Regards to this, secretary general of task force for livelihood of ordinary people and 22 others made a criminal accusation against President Johannes Thammer of Audi Korea and President Thomas Kuehl of Volkswagen Korea to Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office on the 6th of November of last year for violating Clean Air Conservation Act, and investigation is currently taking place after this case was transferred to Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office.
“A reason why Ministry of Environment is making criminal accusations is to pressure Audi Volkswagen Korea to implement recall of 125,500 illegal vehicles that are still on the streets as soon as possible.” said Hong Dong-kon who is the section chief of Ministry of Environment’s Traffic Environment Section.
Staff Reporter Ryu, Jongeun | [email protected] (specializes in vehicles) & Staff Reporter Ham, Bongkyoon | [email protected] (specializes in energy and environment)
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