Holger Haerter, former CFO of German luxury carmaker Porsche Holding arrives before his trial last year (Photo: Reuters)
Holger Haerter, former CFO of German luxury carmaker Porsche Holding arrives before his trial last year [most recent photo] (Photo: Reuters)

A German criminal court has slapped the former Porsche chief financial officer with a €630,000 fine for mis-leading investment bank BNP Paribas in over loan negotiations in 2009.

Holger Haerter was sentenced by the Stuttgart court for his part in helping to engineer Porsche's unsuccessful attempt to take over Volkswagen (VW).

The court ruled that Haerter will have to pay 180 daily instalments of €3,500 for making incomplete and wrong statements about the value of VW share derivatives held by Porsche at the time.

However, Haerter dodged incarceration, after public prosecutors initially pushed for a 3-year suspended prison sentence and a €1m fine.

Haerter's lawyers wanted an acquittal.

In December last year, former Porsche Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking was charged by German prosecutors with market manipulation related to the purchase of VW shares.

The botched takeover attempt by Porsche has led to string of other legal disputes from hedge funds, remain pending.

The alternative investors are seeking billions of euros in damages from Porsche SE, claiming they were misled about Porsche's intentions to increase its stake in VW to 75%.

German public prosecutors said last year that "the investigation found [that] the suspects in February 2008 at the latest made the decision to increase Porsche's share in Volkswagen to 75% in the first quarter of 2009 to prepare a takeover."

However, in the period between March 10 and October 2, 2008, Porsche denied at least five times that it planned to increase its VW stake.

Prosecutors and legal cases claim that public denials, such as these, influenced VW's share price and therefore mis-led investors. Porsche SE still owns 50.7% VW's ordinary shares