Much of the scandal relates to "the old system at VW" under Winterkorn, Dudenhoeffer said. In Germany alone, investors have filed claims seeking some 8.2 billion euros in damages, saying the carmaker failed to inform them quickly enough about the cheating scandal before its shares plunged in September 2015.Īlong with Winterkorn, investigators are looking into former finance director Hans Dieter Poetsch - now supervisory board chairman - and VW brand chief Herbert Diess on suspicion of holding back information from investors. "Winterkorn would become very expensive for VW," he told AFP. The payment, which will allow VW to avoid a trial, comes on top of $17.5 billion in fines and compensation already agreed to cover the costs of the scandal in the US.īut if it is proved that Winterkorn knew about the cheating earlier and colluded in covering it up, VW's legal bills could skyrocket, according to auto industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of Germany's CAR institute.
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VW agreed this month to plead guilty to fraud and pay fines amounting to $4.3 billion (4.0 billion euros) in the United States to close its emissions cases with the Department of Justice. "That is not the case," Winterkorn told German lawmakers at a parliamentary hearing into the dieselgate affair earlier this month. US investigators and German media have alleged that VW executives knew of the scandal as far back as July 2015, but decided to say nothing. Winterkorn - known inside VW as "Mr Quality" for his perfectionism - stepped down the same month, but has always denied any knowledge of the cheating before it became public.
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The software caused engines to reduce emissions of harmful nitrogen oxide when they were undergoing regulators' tests. Volkswagen admitted in September 2015 to installing so-called "defeat devices" in 11 million vehicles worldwide, after their existence was revealed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Prosecutors added that they had this week searched 28 homes and offices linked to the new names on the list.
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With the 16 names added Friday, there are now a total of 37 people under investigation.
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The new evidence comes from the "questioning of witnesses and suspects and the examination of confiscated computer files," the prosecutor's office in the north German city of Brunswick said in a statement. Winterkorn is already under investigation for suspected market manipulation related to the scandal. Investigators say they have "sufficient indications" that Winterkorn may have known earlier than he has so far admitted about the cheating, adding his and 15 other names to a growing list of people facing probes for fraud and false advertising. German prosecutors said Friday they were investigating Volkswagen's former chief executive Martin Winterkorn on suspicion of fraud over the "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal, dealing a blow to the auto giant's attempts to move on from the crisis.