Martin Winterkorn

The record

Compiled by the MrScandal desk from the documents below · Desk editor Laima Ērkšķe-Kreicberga · Nov 9, 2026

Martin Winterkorn chaired Volkswagen AG's management board, which made him the company's highest-ranking executive, from January 2007 until September 2015, according to the U.S. Justice Department. He resigned days after the Environmental Protection Agency's September 18, 2015 notice of violation, which said Volkswagen had installed software in 2.0-liter diesel cars from model years 2009 to 2015 that circumvented federal emissions standards. Since then his own record has been one of charges on two continents, none of which has reached a verdict.

In the United States, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan charged him with one count of conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud in an indictment unsealed in May 2018. Prosecutors allege he was told of the cheating in May 2014 and again in July 2015. In Germany, Braunschweig prosecutors charged him in April 2019 with aggravated fraud and related offenses. He has denied the allegations, and he cannot legally be extradited from Germany to the United States, the AP reported.

His German criminal trial opened in Braunschweig in September 2024, when he told the court he had not been involved in decisions on the software. Within weeks the court paused the trial, and in mid-2025 it provisionally terminated the proceedings, saying it would keep reviewing whether they could resume. Separately, in 2021 he agreed to pay Volkswagen 11.2 million euros to settle the company's damages claim over the scandal, while denying wrongdoing.

Roles and honours on the record

• 2007-2015 Chairman of the management board of Volkswagen AG, January 2007 to September 2015 source
• 2018-present Defendant, superseding indictment, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan source
• 2019-present Defendant, criminal case brought by Braunschweig prosecutors, Regional Court of Braunschweig source