German prosecutors charge current and ex-VW CEOs with 'market manipulation'

German prosecutors said Tuesday they had charged Volkswagen chief executive Herbert Diess, former boss Martin Winterkorn and supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Poetsch with "market manipulation" relating to the car giant's "dieselgate" scandal.

The three are "accused of deliberately informing capital markets too late about the significant payment obligations in the billions arising from the so-called 'diesel scandal', thereby illegally influencing the share price," prosecutors in the north German city of Brunswick said in a statement.