Audi ex-boss becomes 1st top manager sentenced for fraud in diesel scandal

(Reuters) -Former Audi boss Rupert Stadler was handed a suspended sentence of one year and nine months by a Munich court on Tuesday for fraud by negligence in the 2015 diesel scandal, becoming the first former Volkswagen board member to receive such a sentence.

The ex-boss was fined 1.1 million euros ($1.20 million), which will go to the state treasury and non-governmental organisations, the court said.

The sentence is in the middle of the 1.5-2 year timeframe the judge had said the former CEO would face if he confessed to the charge.

Stadler's trial, one of the most prominent court proceedings in the aftermath of the diesel scandal, has been ongoing since 2020.

Audi's parent group Volkswagen and Audi admitted in 2015 to having used illegal software to cheat on emissions tests. Stadler had previously rejected the allegations.

($1 = 0.9141 euros)

(Reporting by Joern Poltz, Victoria Waldersee, Editing by Friederike Heine)