Volkswagen strengthens CEO Herbert Diess and chief overseer Hans Dieter Pötsch even after the indictment of the prosecutor Braunschweig in connection with massively manipulated diesel engines further back.
From today's perspective, the Presidium of the Supervisory Board can continue to recognize no deliberate failure to inform the capital market, said the inner circle of the VW control committee after a meeting convened at short notice in Wolfsburg.
The six-member committee includes Wolfgang Porsche as representative of the family owner and Prime Minister Stephan Weil for the state of Lower Saxony. IG-Metall boss Jörg Hofmann and the works council heads of VW and Audi, Bernd Osterloh and Peter Mosch sit on the committee for the employees. Pötsch, as a supervisory board member also a member of the inner circle, did not take part in the deliberations because of the indictment against him.
Continue "Successful cooperation"
"For this reason, the successful cooperation with the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and the Chairman of the Executive Board should be continued," the statement said. The substantial price losses of the VW shares were justified in the then completely unexpected announcement of the US authorities for the exhaust gas manipulation, announced the supervisory board top.
The VW board could not have foreseen this. After legal advice from attorneys, it had rather been assumed that a consensual solution with the US authorities could first be worked out. The Supervisory Board will now meet for an extraordinary meeting this Wednesday.
The prosecutor Braunschweig had previously reported, Pötsch, Diess and ex-VW CEO Martin Winterkorn accuse of allegations of market manipulation in the wake of the emissions crisis. From the point of view of prosecutors, they should not have informed investors in time about the risks of the diesel affair in good time.