The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the VW Group, Hans Dieter Pötsch, gets in the exhaust affair more under pressure. A witness charged the former CFO in a statement before the prosecutor Braunschweig, because of the Suspected of market manipulation determined against Pötsch.
The then for the approval of Volkswagen Legal models P. said he had already informed Pötsch and former Chief Justice G. in early June 2015 about the use of prohibited software (“defeat device”) in US vehicles. He has called both the number of cars involved and the threat of fines, as well as the possible criminal consequences for VW managers in the United States to jail terms.
The VW group did not inform the public until the US authorities announced the scandal on 18 September 2015. Opposite the Braunschweiger public prosecutor’s office lawyers of Pötsch and G. are initially denied that there had been an appointment of their clients with the witness.
E-mail supports version of the witness
However, the witness remembered informing his supervisor about the conversation with the CFO at that time. Investigators were actually able to find the appropriate message in the supervisor’s e-mail inbox. It supports the version of the witness.
VW describes the facts as not applicable. The presentation by the witness P. is emphatically rejected because, according to several persons questioned, such information was not part of the discussion in question. Until the announcement by the US authorities of the Notice of Violation by the US authorities on September 18, 2015, which was unexpected for the Board of Management, the Board of Management did not at any time have sufficient concrete indications of a price-sensitive situation.
The prosecutor Braunschweig will decide early next year, whether it against Pötsch, ex-chief Martin Winterkorn and possibly also VW boss Herbert Diess Charge for market manipulation. All parties had always rejected the allegations.