Continental Offices Raided in VW Diesel Probe

<img data-attachment-id="1727290" data-permalink="https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2020/07/continental-predicts-worst-financial-quarter-since-world-war-2/shutterstock_416302465/" data-orig-file="https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/shutterstock_416302465.jpg" data-orig-size="1000,662" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Continental tire" data-image-description="

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It hasn’t been what we would call a tranquil year for Continental. The German parts supplier spent the summer preparing for one of the worst financial periods in its 149-year history and apologizing for its involvement with the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis) by hiring an independent researcher to chronicle their forced-labor practices in detail. The dark trip down memory lane served as a strange interlude from the company’s financial concerns, which re-manifested in September when Continental announced it would have to eliminate around 13 percent of its existing staff — or about 30,000 employees.

News has broken that the supplier’s 2020 troubles didn’t end there. German prosecutors also made their rounds on September 22nd, stopping at Continental facilities in Hanover and Regensburg as part of an ongoing investigation into Volkswagen’s Dieselgate fiasco from 2015.

Germany is worried that the company may have supplied VW with engine components that could have helped the automaker’s 1.6-liter diesel hide excessive pollution during testing using illicit software (defeat devices). According to Reuters, authorities are officially trying to identify Continental’s role in the matter and if there was any collusion in regard to the plot to con emission regulators.

The parts supplier was actually being searched in July, too. Prosecutors were looking into numerous employees for potentially abetting fraud and providing false documentation on suspect components. It also launched office raids in Berlin, Frankfurt, Gifhorn, Hanover, Regensburg, Wolfsburg, and Nuremberg.

Continental used the latest raids as an opportunity to say that it’s cooperating with authorities and reminded everyone of its big financial loss it’ll be reporting next month.

[Image: arcticphotoworks/Shutterstock]

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