By In-Soo Nam 

SEOUL -- An executive of Volkswagen AG's South Korean unit has been arrested amid widening investigations into the German auto maker's emissions-test cheating scandal.

Prosecutors on Friday arrested the executive, identified by his surname as Yoon, 52, and put him in custody on charges of submitting manipulated data to South Korean authorities, said a spokesman for the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office.

Mr. Yoon was the first Volkswagen Korea official to be charged in an investigation into the emissions-cheating case by Korean prosecutors.

Mr. Yoon wasn't available for comment. A Volkswagen Korea spokeswoman declined to comment on his arrest.

The executive has been accused of filing more than a hundred falsified emission documents and manipulated noise reports for cars sold in Korea starting in 2010.

Among the vehicles affected by the suspected inaccurate documents are the Volkswagen Golf and the Audi A4 and A7.

Prosecution investigators discovered the situation after searching Volkswagen's Korean offices and seized relevant documents last month. In a further probe into the case, prosecutors seized 950 Volkswagen cars, including the Audi A1, A3 and the Golf earlier this month.

Volkswagen has been under a flurry of legal actions in South Korea and other countries after it admitted in September last year to falsifying U.S. emissions tests on some of its diesel-powered cars.

In the U.S., Volkswagen is nearing a $10 billion civil settlement, the largest in the auto industry's history, to compensate American owners of vehicles affected by the German car maker's emissions-cheating scandal, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

In November, the Korean government ordered Volkswagen Korea to recall more than 125,000 diesel-powered cars sold in the country after it found the European car maker installed emissions-cheating software in the vehicles. It also fined the German car maker a total of 14.1 billion won ($12.3 million).

Write to In-Soo Nam at In-Soo.Nam@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 25, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)