Prosecutors have again searched the VW headquarters, trigger is a dubious stock market announcement of the Group. Should investors be misled by the extent of the irregularities in C02 emissions?
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Tuesday, 20.03.2018
15:40 clock
No respite for Volkswagen: The prosecutor Braunschweig has again on suspicion of market manipulation Searched offices in the Wolfsburg headquarters, At the beginning of March, papers and several terabytes of data in the VW rooms were secured, Brunswick’s chief prosecutor Klaus Ziehe said on Tuesday. It is about possibly wrong consumption data and the output of the climate gas carbon dioxide (CO2). The raid had previously made the “Wirtschaftswoche” public.
The new investigation is mainly about an ad-hoc release from VW in December 2015. Well one month earlier, namely in early November 2015, and thus shortly after the announcement of the diesel scandal, the group had initially reported that there were “indications of further irregularities “.
With 800,000 cars it had come to “unexplained values” in CO2 measurements. This suggested that the fuel consumption could be wrong for these cars. On December 9, 2015, VW revoked the information and sent an ad hoc message, according to which only nine model variants and only 36,000 cars are affected. Volkswagen is of the opinion that it has duly complied with its obligation to publish.
“They were measured green”
The prosecution now has evidence that this second ad-hoc statement was “objectively wrong in content,” as spokesman Ziehe said. “We have indications that more vehicles are affected.” The exact number is not fixed yet. “The prosecutor now checks whether employees of Volkswagen have acted grossly negligent or intentional,” said Ziehe.
Manfred Döss, Head of Legal at VW and Board Member of Porsche SE, confirmed the search. “The allegation is that Volkswagen made the ad-hoc release here at a time when it was not yet objectively accurate,” he said. It is true that Volkswagen at that time in close exchange with the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) “They were all green, so we came to the conclusion that it is reasonable to correct the ad-hoc release here.”
The prosecution’s allegation is market manipulation. Shortly after the announcement in December 2015 that VW threatened no further disruptions to the extent of the diesel scandal even in the case of CO2 emissions, namely VW shares had risen sharply. The papers climbed more than six percent that day. After the manipulations of nitrogen oxide values of Volkswagen, which were found in the diesel scandal, the stock markets reacted very nervously at the time to news about VW.
VW with billions won
Should the suspicion be confirmed, this could be relevant for possible investor complaints, said industry expert Stephan Bratzel. The renewed searches would come for Volkswagen “at an inopportune”, because the company is trying to reposition after the exhaust gas scandal. Just recently, the VW group had announced billions in profits for 2017 – and thus defied the debates on driving bans and diesel crisis.
In addition to the new investigations into CO2 emissions, there are numerous investigations into Volkswagen employees, including managers. All in all, there are proceedings against 49 alleged participants – 39 for software manipulation around nitrogen dioxide emissions, and six against false carbon and fuel consumption figures. In three cases it is about market manipulation, in addition to investigations against an employee, who should have called for the deletion of data.
In the US, two former VW employees have already been sentenced to prison terms. In addition, many investors civil suit for damages for losses incurred and thousands of customers for compensation and exchange of affected diesel cars.