Cheats: new searches in Volkswagen

Photo AFP

AFP

Tuesday, march 20, 2018 10:36

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Tuesday, march 20, 2018 10:36

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The German department of justice has ordered the beginning of march for new searches at the headquarters of the manufacturer Volkswagen, in the course of an investigation for price manipulation related to the cheating of the group on its emissions, according to several sources.

“Documents and large masses of data” were seized in 13 offices of the giant of the automobile in Wolfsburg, said Tuesday at the weekly Wirtschaftswoche a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in braunschweig.

According to the same source, it is to investigate a financial update, published December 9, 2015 by Volkswagen, which minimized the extent of the fraud on the emissions of carbon dioxide revealed a month earlier. The prosecution suspects that this document be “objectively false” and intended to deceive investors.

Volkswagen has confirmed to the AFP, the holding of these new searches and the link to the news of the end of 2015, but said he “was convinced to have properly fulfilled its regulatory obligations to information”, according to a spokesperson.

The German giant of the automotive was recognized November 3, 2015 “irregularities” on the CO2 emissions of 800,000 cars, mainly diesel but with 98 000 models gasoline, so that this greenhouse gas is crucial to the global warming.

These revelations came to shake a little more the group, accused two months ago of having rigged the software of eleven million of its diesel cars to hide the true level of their emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx).

In the scandal of drawers, the floor of Brunswick, among other investigations on distinct patterns, investigation since June 2016 on suspicion of price manipulation aimed, in particular, the former boss of Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, as well as its former chief financial officer became the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch.

Seized by the constable of the German financial markets (Bafin), the prosecutor’s office in Stuttgart has its open side in February 2017, a survey aimed, in particular, the current boss of the group, Matthias Müller, for having “consciously informed with a delay,” the financial markets of the cheating on the diesel.

After the revelations on the dieselgate, the share of Volkswagen had dropped 40% in two days. Investors have cashed out of big losses and are now claiming billions of euros in Volkswagen.

Justice, both in the United States than in Germany, always seeks to establish the individual responsibilities in the handling of the values of pollutant emissions within the German group, which has cast a general suspicion on the sector and undermined the image of diesel technology on the Old continent.