The eavesdropping incident involving Volkswagen and Bosnian parts supplier ASA Prevent has just taken a more serious turn.
On the evening of August 10, a burned-out car was found on a field with a dead body inside. Reports from Germany say there’s a high probability that the dead man is the alleged VW manager that secretly recorded the meetings as earlier reported.
Braunschweig public prosecutor’s spokeswoman Julia Meyer has confirmed that the torched car belonged to the VW employee. The prosecutor’s office added that it had not yet been possible to formally confirm the identity of the deceased.
The prosecutor’s office is now looking at whether the death is linked to the manager at the center of the VW eavesdropping probe, and whether there are links to an arson attack on his house in May. That’s right, a major fire completely destroyed the VW manager’s house at the end of May but he was not home at the time. Experts from the police and fire brigade suspect arson in that case.
Volkswagen and Prevent butted heads in 2016 following a disagreement over pricing, encouraging Car Trim and ES Automobilguss (both subsidiaries of Prevent Group) to hold a bunch of gearbox components and seat covers hostage. This created a production shortage for VW and a lot of bad blood between the companies, especially since it was well publicized in the European media. A legal battle followed, with both firms claiming to be the victim.
In late July VW asked German prosecutors to investigate the leak of illegal audio recordings from its internal meetings dedicated to the supplier dispute. The carmaker said it “has become the victim of an illegal eavesdropping attack” and filed a criminal complaint against a VW procurement manager alleged to have made the secret recordings.
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