The current chairman and the chief executive of Volkswagen AG (VW) were alerted by the former CEO to the use of illicit emissions-control software in the US two weeks before the automaker disclosed the scale of its manipulations, Bild am Sonntag reported, without citing the source of the information.
Martin Winterkorn, who resigned within a week of Volkswagen’s biggest-ever corporate scandal becoming public on Sept. 18 last year, briefed VW’s executive board on Sept. 8 that the automaker had admitted the use of “defeat devices” to US authorities, the newspaper reported on Sunday.
Participants in the meeting on Sept. 8 last year included then-chief financial officer Hans Dieter Poetsch and then-chief executive officer of Porsche, Matthias Mueller, according to Bild am Sonntag. They have since become VW’s chairman and chief executive, respectively.
Poetsch has been criticized by some investors and analysts for failing to inform VW’s shareholders of the looming problem, with some of them demanding that VW select an independent chairman if it wants to overcome the crisis.
Volkswagen “fully complied with the requirements set out in the securities law,” a spokesman said in an e-mail. “Volkswagen categorically declines comment on the contents of management board meetings.”
VW’s own acknowledgment of the manipulations on Sept. 20 last year subsequently erased billions of euros from the company’s market value, forced Winterkorn’s resignation and sparked investigations and lawsuits across the world.
The automaker defended its actions on Wednesday last week, saying it had not failed in its duties because it had no idea until the US Environmental Protection Agency released its statement on Sept. 18 last year, how expensive the affair could become.
The actions by VW’s management were driven by an “interest in secrecy” as the automaker was hoping to find a “solution” with US authorities without incurring major fines, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported in an advance release of yesterday’s edition, citing a VW position paper drawn up to fend off damage claims from shareholders.
A VW spokesman declined comment on Sunday, referring to its statement on Wednesday last week.
Tuebingen, Germany-based law firm TILP, representing some shareholders’ lawsuits against VW, on Sunday dismissed VW’s interpretation of disclosure rules as “misleading and wrong” and accused the automaker of trying to blame its stock plunge on the EPA’s notice of violation on Sept. 18 last year.
Europe’s largest automaker has pledged to publish results of an investigation into the scandal in the second half of next month.
The inquiry is led by US law firm Jones Day.
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