The criminal proceedings against possible market manipulation against VW CEO Herbert Diess and supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch are to be terminated for a payment of nine million euros.
A spokesman for the Volkswagen control body confirmed an agreement between the two defendants and the judiciary on Tuesday. The “Manager Magazine” had previously reported on this.
In September 2019, the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig had brought charges against the CEO Herbert Diess, VW Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch and ex-VW boss Martin Winterkorn on suspicion of market manipulation.
► The prosecutors had examined whether the VW managers knew earlier than previously that there had been concrete deceptions regarding the exhaust gas data in the USA. According to the investigation, this was the case.
At the time, the message said: “The aforementioned – former or incumbent – members of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG are accused, contrary to their legal obligation, of the capital market deliberately too late for the significant payment obligations of the group in the billions of euros resulting from the exposure of the so-called diesel scandal informed and thus had an illegal influence on the company’s stock market price. “
► The lawyers at Diess and Winterkorn always rejected the allegations.
The diesel scandal
Pötsch was the CFO of the Volkswagen Group when Winterkorn, at that time, granted exhaust gas manipulations to diesel car engines in the United States.
The extent of the scandal: millions of vehicles worldwide were affected, many owners of VW shares suffered price losses. Today’s CEO Diess joined the group in summer 2015 and was initially only the head of the Volkswagen core brand.
VW had had to admit after tests by US environmental authorities and researchers that it had set the exhaust gas software of certain diesel engines so that significantly more toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) were emitted during actual operation on the road than in pollutant tests.
The manipulations became known on September 18, 2015 – the managers were suspected of not having dealt with the impending financial risks long before this date, despite possible indications. Compensation in this scandal has so far cost Volkswagen 30 billion euros – especially damages and fines in the United States.
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