Volkswagen bosses Herbert Diess, Hans Dieter Poetsch and Martin Winterkorn charged in Germany over 2015 diesel scandal
- The three men are accused of deliberately informing markets too late about the huge costs to the company that would result from the scandal
- Volkswagen installed software in its diesel cars that only turned on pollution controls when vehicles were being tested
CEO Herbert Diess, Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch, and former chief Martin Winterkorn are accused of deliberately informing markets too late about the huge costs to the company that would result from the scandal, prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig said.
That, they said in a statement, meant the executives had improperly influenced the company’s share price.
The charges, which Volkswagen rejected, could require Diess to spend significant time on his defence, distracting him at a crucial time for the company, which is trying to move on from the scandal and is recasting its business to focus on new – cleaner – technologies like electric cars.
The prosecutors argued that Winterkorn had been aware of the issue and the potential resulting damage since at least May 2015, Poetsch since June 29 and Diess since July 27. Each of them should have ordered the release of an ad hoc statement for markets at that point, the prosecutors said.