Volkswagen says CEO got diesel snag warning

Volkswagen's former chief executive may have been warned as early as May 2014 of possible anomalies dogging its diesel engines, months before the scandal erupted worldwide, the company admitted.
However, none of its top bosses could have known of the full extent of the scandal until it broke in September of that year, the company claimed in a statement late Wednesday.
VW, a former paragon of German industry with ambitions to become the world's biggest carmaker, has been plunged into its deepest-ever crisis by revelations that it installed emissions-cheating software into 11 million diesel engines worldwide.
In a bid to identify the masterminds behind the engine-rigging that has sent shockwaves through the automobile sector all around the world, the embattled German giant is conducting an internal investigation, the preliminary results of which are to be published next month.

But in a statement today, VW revealed that former chief executive Martin Winterkorn -- who resigned shortly after the scandal broke while still protesting his innocence -- was sent a memo on May 23, 2014 regarding a study published by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) that had highlighted some of the irregularities that have subsequently come to light.
It was the ICCT that alerted VW's cheating practices to the US environmental agency, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which then went public with the accusations last September.

"This memo was included in his extensive weekend mail. Whether and to which extent Mr. Winterkorn took notice of this memo at that time is not documented," the statement said.

Winterkorn subsequently received another memo in November 2014 that "referred to a cost framework of approximately 20 million euros for the diesel issue in North America," it continued.
"According to current knowledge, the diesel matter, as it was treated as one of many product issues facing the company, did not initially receive particular attention at the management levels of Volkswagen."
On top of still unquantifiable regulatory fines in a range of countries, VW is facing a slew of legal suits, notably in the US and Germany, from angry car owners, as well as from shareholders seeking damages for the massive loss in the value of their shares since September.

They accuse VW of violating capital market disclosure rules, saying the carmaker knew about the irregularities long before the scandal broke and should have informed shareholders much earlier because they must have known it would affect the share price.