GERMANY – Volkwagen Pension Trust (VPT), the pension fund for the German car giant, has named Josef-Fidelis Senn as its new chief executive with immediate effect.
Senn replaces Helmuth Schuster, who resigned late last month amid a bribery and sex scandal that is currently dogging Europe’s largest carmaker. In addition to heading VPT, Schuster was head of VW’s Skoda car division.
VPT’s other board executive, Albrecht Möhle, recently confirmed a revamp of the way the fund’s €1.5bn in pension assets are invested.
The scandal at VW erupted in early June when the German press reported that Schuster had created several dummy component firms outside of Germany for the purpose of profiting from lucrative supply contracts with the carmaker.
The press also reported that labour representatives at VW, in exchange for their support of management decisions, accepted bribes and other perks, including sex with Brazilian prostitutes.
The allegations also prompted the resignations of VW’s workers’ council head Klaus Volkert and top personnel executive Peter Hartz. A personal friend of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's, Hartz helped devise the Schröder government’s recent labour market reforms.
However, none of the allegations have been confirmed and are the subject of an investigation by the public prosecutor in Brunswick, which is near VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters.
VPT, which recently completed a revamp of its pension investments, said Senn’s appointment would have no bearing on its operations. The fund serves 168,000 employees at the carmaker and its assets come both from pension plans and its so-called time-value fund.
Launched in 1998, VW’s time-value fund enables employees to save the monetary equivalent of overtime hours, unused holiday, cash bonuses or a portion of salary to help finance retirement or any time off work.
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