German carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said on Sunday that German prosecutors had widened an investigation into suspected market manipulation to include supervisory board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch.
The investigation, which relates to Poetsch’s time as finance chief of VW, is the latest fallout from the carmaker’s admission last year that it cheated on diesel emissions tests.
The prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig first announced the probe in June, targeting former VW Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn and VW brand chief Herbert Diess for suspected market manipulation related to the carmaker’s emissions scandal.
VW has admitted that it installed software that deactivated pollution controls on more than 11 million diesel vehicles sold worldwide, rattling its global business, damaging its reputation and prompting the departure of CEO Winterkorn.
The prosecutor’s office said in June that its probe centered on evidence that VW’s duty to disclose possible financial damage from the emissions test cheating may have arisen before Sept. 22, 2015, when the carmaker publicly admitted its wrongdoing.
“Based on a thorough examination by internal and internal legal experts, the company reaffirms its belief that VW’s management fulfilled its duties to inform the capital market,” VW said on Sunday.
It said the company and Poetsch would fully support the prosecutor’s office in its investigation.
Separately, Bild am Sonntag reported that a U.S. regulator had found software in some Audi vehicles that lowered their carbon dioxide emissions if it detected they were being used under test conditions.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Andrea Shalal and Adrian Croft)
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