The prosecutor Braunschweig charges in the diesel affair charges against VW boss Herbert Diess, his predecessor Martin Winterkorn and supervisory chief Hans Dieter Pötsch.
And that's the point: The process is only indirectly about the massively manipulated diesel engines. The authority is concerned with the question of whether the VW management had informed investors too late about the exhaust fraud and the associated financial consequences.
The Group had only informed the financial markets on September 22, 2015, several days after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its actions in the US. However, indications of irregularities had already existed before. For example, the illegal shut-off devices for exhaust control at the end of July 2015 were already the subject of an internal meeting. Among others, the then VW CEO Martin Winterkorn participated, but also today's CEO Herbert Diess, then brand executive board.
Volkswagen had to pay more than 20 billion euros in the US alone because of the scandal. The company itself has defended the actions of its managers. Billion penalties were considered unlikely at the time, so the financial markets were not informed.
