Volkswagen loses bid to block investigators examining the unpublished legal files about its emission scandal
Volkswagen has lost a legal challenge to prevent prosecutors from examining unpublished documents about its emission scandal, with Germany’s top court ruling on Friday, July 6 that files seized from a U.S. law firm may be reviewed.
It means the information from the files may be made public as part of any criminal proceedings, thus providing more ammunition for shareholders and car owners seeking damages.
Shortly after the dieselgate scandal broke in September 2015, VW hired law firm Jones Day and advisory firm Deloitte to investigate the issue and look at who was responsible.
VW never published the findings of the Jones Day investigation, although a summary was compiled in the form of a „Statement of Facts“ for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prosecutors searched the Munich offices of Jones Day in March 2017 in connection with afraud probe related to 3.0 litre diesel engines made by VW’s premium unit Audi.
VW fought the use of any files taken in the raid, and the constitu- t ional court last July issued a temporary order blocking Munich prosecutors from assessing the material. The dismissal of VW’s legal challenge by the federal constitutional court on Friday is a further blow to VW, which is still grappling with the implications of the dieselgate scandal almost three years after it came to light.
Munich state prosecutors said it was not yet clear when they would start to examine the seized folders and computer data, but that they hoped they would make their investigations easier.
The ruling comes just weeks after VW was fined 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) over emissions cheating, one of the highest fines ever imposed on a company by German authorities.
Munich prosecutors have also widened a probe into VW’s luxury brand Audi to include now suspended Chief Executive Rupert Stadler among the suspects accu- s ed of fraud and false advertising.
Lawyers enjoy some protec- t ion from raids in Germany, but the court on Friday said that the seizure of the Jones Day documents did not infringe on VW’s right to a fair legal process. It said that as a U.S. firm, Jones Day could not ask for protection of the German constitution and that the lawyers themselves, who had complained, were not personally affected. The court also said that there was a risk ofabuse should lawyers be protected from raids in anything other than special circumstances, because evidence could be „purposefully stored with lawyers or only selectively published“. VW said it welcomed the fact that the court’s decision brought some clarity on the issue, even if the court disagreed with the carmaker.
Text pochází z agentury Reuters
Naučte se gramatiku podle textu
Dnes se v textu objevil příklad inverze v podmínkové větě: „… there was a risk of abuse should lawyers be protected from raids …“ („… existuje riziko zneužití, pokud by právníci měli být chráněni před zátahy …“) Inverze je jev, kdy před podmět vložíme pomocné nebo modální sloveso, v našem případě should, namísto použití if a běžného slovosledu. Věta „If you were interested, you would ask for more details.“ bude tedy za použití inverze znít takto: „Were you interested, you would ask for more details.“ Inverzi v podmínkových větách používáme ve formálním stylu, v běžném hovoru není obvyklá.
Použijte inverzi: If it should rain, we will meet inside. If they had been informed, they would have left. If they were here on time, we would be able to help them.
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SLOVÍČKA
bid pokus, snaha
investigator vyšetřovatel
legal challenge právní napadení
prosecutor prokurátor, žalobce
ruling usnesení, rozhodnutí
seize zabavit
ammunition zde argumenty
shareholder akcionář
seek damages požadovat odškodnění
Department of Justice Ministerstvo spravedlnosti
fraud podvod
probe šetření, vyšetřování
dismissal zamítnutí
blow rána, šok
grapple potýkat se, zápasit
implication následek
fine pokutovat, pokuta
impose uložit, uvalit
suspect podezřelý
accuse obvinit, nařknout
raid zátah, razie
infringe narušit, porušit
affect ovlivnit, postihnout
abuse zneužití
purposefully záměrně, úmyslně
Řešení: Should it rain, … Had they been informed, … Were they here on time, …
Zdroj LN