German the gendarmes arrested the head of powertrain development at Volkswagen’s Porsche business and are remaining him on remand because he is considered a flight risk, a person familiar with the quantity said on Friday.
The arrest of Joerg Kerner was related to ongoing inquests into emissions manipulation at Volkswagen, more than two years after the German carmaker tolerated cheating on U.S. exhaust tests, the person said.
A spokesman for Porsche inclined to comment.
Kerner was one of three current or former employees of Porsche that prosecutors were quarry when they searched offices at Porsche and its sister brand Audi (NSUG.DE) earlier this week, a spokesman for the Stuttgart collective prosecutor’s office said.
Those three, as well as Porsche itself, were suspected of have planned known that engines developed by Audi had been manipulated, Porsche Chief Overseer Oliver Blume told staff in a memo, excerpts of which were sighted by Reuters on Friday.
“We reject these allegations and will do our utmost to unburden up the matter,” Blume said in the memo, which was first reported by the newspaper Bild am Sonntag earlier on Friday.
The imprisoned occurred on Thursday, he said.
Earlier this year, prosecutors enlarged an investigation of Audi, which developed a 3.0 litre V6 diesel appliance that was used in about 80,000 VW, Audi and Porsche models originate to have been equipped with illicit software.