Lopez’s VW Office Searched in Espionage Investigation

German prosecutors searched the office of controversial Volkswagen official Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortura on Thursday as a three-month investigation of alleged industrial spying at the German auto maker intensified.

The search was part of a swoop on 11 VW properties following claims that Lopez stole secret papers from his previous employer, General Motors Corp., before switching to VW in March.

Prosecutor Georg Nauth said private residences had been searched as well.

The object of the searches, among other things, was to find documents from GM and its Adam Opel German subsidiary that supposedly ended up with VW, he said.

VW spokesman Lutz Schilling said from the firm’s Wolfsburg headquarters that the searches were a normal part of investigations by the prosecutors and that the company continues to stand by Lopez, who has strongly denied the allegations.

“Dr. Lopez’s position is in no way being brought into question by us,” he said.

The searches, which took place in the presence of VW legal staff, had been expected, Schilling added, although the company had not thought they would take place Thursday.

He said VW was happy that the investigation was making progress and that VW has an interest in clearing up the matter as quickly as possible.

Schilling did not know whether the prosecutors had taken documents with them or would do so.

He said VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech was not at the Wolfsburg headquarters but on a business trip. Lopez was in his office and was continuing to work.

A second VW spokesman, Hans Peter Blechinger, also said VW welcomed the searches, carried out by about 40 officials.

VW has continued to back Lopez publicly after an internal inquiry found no evidence of theft of Opel documents by staff now working at VW.

But on Aug. 6 it conceded for the first time that potentially sensitive GM papers had turned up in the town of Wiesbaden and at its guest house in Wolfsburg.

Two weeks ago, after further detailed allegations had appeared in the media that Opel papers had been fed into VW computers, Volkswagen commissioned an independent investigation by auditors KPMG Deutsche Treuhand.

Klaus Liesen, VW supervisory board chairman, said in an interview in Thursday’s edition of Die Zeit newspaper that he would not support Lopez unconditionally while the auditors were still looking into the claims of industrial espionage.