Porsche Offices Raided by German Officials

If you’ve so much as glanced at a car magazine in the last year, you’ve probably read something about Porsche’s recurring attempts to take over VW. Having spent a few years acquiring larger and larger stakes in Volkswagen, Porsche finally had to concede defeat after the failure of their last attempt in May. Shortly thereafter, Porsche surprised many when it came to light that the apparently successful sportscar manufacturer was mere hours away from declaring bankruptcy had it not been for a government loan.

This obvious incongruity has led to a pretty thorough investigation of Porsche’s financial history of the past few years. So thorough, in fact, that German prosecutors have seen fit to raid Porsche’s offices under the suspicion of stock price manipulation and insider trading. Focussing on Porsche’s activities surrounding their most recent attempts at acquiring VW, prosecutors seem to be centring their investigation around recently departed Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and ex-CFO Holger Haerter.

Since the attempted takeover failure and near bankruptcy, Porsche has suffered a serious about face, and is now owned predominantly by VW and an independent investor’s group from Qatar.