Former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn must now answer to the Braunschweig Regional Court on suspicion of market manipulation as a result of the emissions scandal.
He is accused of deliberately not having informed the capital market in time about an increased financial risk through claims for damages and penalties. He himself is said to have known at an early stage about the installation of inadmissible cut-off devices in diesel engines. The software manipulation only became known when the “Notice of Violation” was published by American authorities. According to the German Securities Trading Act, Mr. Winterkorn did not meet his obligation to make an “ad hoc announcement” in time, as this firstly happened on September 22, 2015, but the publications about the manipulation have already been made on September 18, 2015.
The defendant rejects the accusation, according to the Frankfurt defense attorney Felix Dörr. The accusations are “unfounded” and the “capital market law issues are largely disputed.“
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