German Prosecutors File Suit Against Volkswagen CEO, Others -- Update

(Updates with Volkswagen, supervisory board statements.)

 
   By Max Bernhard 
 

German public prosecutors on Tuesday brought charges against Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE) Chief Executive Herbert Diess, as well as the car maker's chairman and a former executive, alleging market manipulation in its emissions scandal.

Mr. Diess, as well as Volkswagen's former CEO Martin Winterkorn and Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch "are accused of deliberately informing the capital market too late about the group's substantial payment obligations in the billions resulting from the discovery of the so-called 'diesel scandal'," the Braunschweig public prosecutor said in a statement.

Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to having rigged some 11 million of its diesel vehicles globally with software that allowed them to dodge government emissions tests. The company's share price plummeted in the days after the diesel emissions scandal erupted.

Volkswagen on Tuesday rejected the accusations and the company remains convinced that it fulfilled all its information obligations under capital market law, Hiltrud Dorothea Werner, Member of the Board of Management for Integrity and Legal Affairs, said.

"If there is a trial, we are confident that the allegations will prove to be unfounded," she said.

A spokesman for Volkswagen's supervisory board said that the chairman's committee would meet "immediately" to discuss further proceedings on the charges.

Write to Max Bernhard at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 24, 2019 06:53 ET (10:53 GMT)

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