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He has not been charged so far, no criminal charges. This is just to keep him from interfering with witnesses.

He has been charged with fraud (Betrug) and causing false entries to be made in public records (mittelbare Falschbeurkundung) [1].

This is not surprising, because a hard requirement for pretrial detention [1] is that it is highly likely that the suspect committed a criminal offense [2]. The risk of either flight or obstruction of justice is an additional requirement on top of him being a suspect.

[1] http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/audi-chef-ruper... (in German)

[2] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stpo/englisch_st...

Is this usual in Germany? To me it seems to be a fairly extraordinary step, almost theatrical.

I would say it's at least not uncommon. Danger of collusion / "Verdunkelungsgefahr" ist an often cited reason for that.

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