VW bosses and former CEO charged with market manipulation

Prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany have brought criminal charges of stock market manipulation against current Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess, Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch and former CEO Martin Winterkorn.

The charges relate to their alleged role in the German carmaker's emissions-cheating scandal in 2015.

Prosecutors said there was evidence the accused intentionally failed to inform investors in time about the potential financial impact of the Dieselgate affair.

Dieselgate involved the large-scale use of 'cheat devices' in diesel vehicles to rig laboratory emissions tests. It affected millions of VW owners directly, but the scandal also hit investors who were not able to sell their shares fast enough as the collapse of the stock came out of the blue.

Prosecutors said those charged on Tuesday are suspected of having held back vital information for investors, failing to tell them about expected damage payments and litigation costs. The defendants claimed they only learned about the scam in September 2015 when US environmental regulators made it public.

Investors incurred huge losses when VW shares took a deep dive on September 21, 2015, the first trading day after US agencies officially informed about the manipulation. VW executives set out a profit warning on September 22 -  too late for shareholders to avoid major losses.

When the scandal broke, Martin Winterkorn was chief executive officer. Hans Dieter Pötsch was chief financial officer while current CEO Herbert Diess joined the company in the summer of 2015 as head of Volkswagen's core brand, VW.