Audi CEO agrees to cooperate in diesel scandal

Updated 06/19/2018

Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and could be released within days, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing a Munich prosecutor.

According to Dow Jones Newswires, Stadler has been temporarily relieved of CEO duties, and Abraham Schot will serve as interim CEO.As reported Monday, a spokesman for Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, said Stadler had been arrested.

According to Munich prosecutors, Stadler was arrested  because investigators saw the risk that he might seek to suppress evidence in connection with a diesel emissions probe.

"The suspect has been seen by a judge, who has ordered him to be remanded in custody," the prosecutors' office said in a statement, published by Reuters.

The prosecutors' office last week widened its emissions cheating probe into Volkswagen's luxury brand Audi to include Stadler among the suspects accused of fraud and false advertising.

It was in September 2015 when VW admitted to using illegal software to cheat U.S. emissions tests on diesel engines.

It was the company’s biggest crisis and led to a regulatory crackdown across the auto industry.