The Volkswagen sex and bribery scandal returned to the headlines yesterday after the company's former works council head was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for breach of trust.
Klaus Volkert, who represented VW employees at board level, received special bonuses of €2 million to keep him and other union representatives voting with management on strategic decisions.
Yesterday's verdict in the western city of Braunschweig is the fourth, but by far toughest, sentence handed down so far in the Volkswagen Affair.
The affair came to light three years ago and has since ruined the reputation of VW personnel boss Peter Hartz, a close friend of former chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the brains behind the former government's belt-tightening "Hartz" reforms.
Unknown to Mr Schröder at the time, however, his friend was also behind the belt-loosening "Volkswagen affair". He signed off on foreign trips, prostitutes and expensive presents, all to keep the VW union men on side.
Under German company law, works council leaders need to be consulted on major company decisions, a situation particularly ingrained at VW thanks to its historical tradition of co-determination.
The revelations about large-scale abuse of this system continue to generate shock waves.
Hartz went on trial first and, after cutting a deal with prosecutors, received a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of €576,000 a year ago.
He claimed during his trial that none of his superiors was aware of the lengths his office went to keep the workers' representatives on side.
Former Volkswagen boss Wolfgang Piech, now head of the VW supervisory board, testified during Volkert3's trial that he did not know about the corruption network.
However, one of Hartz's personnel staff, Klaus-Joachim Gebauer, received a one-year suspended prison term yesterday after telling the trial that his boss had ordered him to treat the union men "generously".
From the start, the main focus of the sex and bribery allegations was Volkert. He was accused of demanding regular trips to Brazil to visit a prostitute who became his mistress.
In addition, he demanded a €400,000 "consulting" contract for her with VW, a contract which required no work. The company paid nearly €300,000 in hotel costs, shopping and "non-business-related activities".
"Volkert was aware that he only received this payments as a member of the works council," Judge Gerstin Dreyer said yesterday. "He also knew that the payments were funnelled to him outside of the regular Volkswagen channels."
