[ad_1]
(Addition of a statement to the SEC, no comment from Winterkorn's attorney)
WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) – The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sued Volkswagen AG and former managing director Martin Winterkorn for the German manufacturer's diesel scandal accusing the company of perpetrating a "mbadive fraud" on American investors.
The SEC said in its lawsuit filed in San Francisco that between April 2014 and May 2015, Volkswagen had issued more than $ 13 billion of bonds and debt-backed securities in US markets, to a when senior executives knew that more than 500,000 diesel vehicles in the United States exceeded legal emission limits of vehicles.
Volkswagen "has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits by issuing securities at more attractive rates for the company," said the SEC.
The lawsuit seeks to prohibit Winterkorn from acting as an officer or director of a US public corporation and recovering "ill-gotten gains". Winterkorn had been charged by US prosecutors in 2018 and accused of conspiring to conceal cheating diesel emissions from the German automaker.
He stays in Germany.
Volkswagen said the SEC's claim "is legally and factually flawed, and Volkswagen will vigorously challenge it." The SEC has filed an unprecedented lawsuit over securities sold only to sophisticated investors who have not suffered any prejudice and have received all interest and principal payments in full and on time ". "
The automaker added that the SEC "does not argue that the people involved in the bond issue know that Volkswagen's diesel vehicles were not complying with US emissions rules when those securities were sold ", but repeats allegations that Winterkorn" has played no role in sales. "
Volkswagen has agreed to pay more than $ 25 billion to the United States following the scandal that lasted three and a half years, to pay the claims of owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers, and offered to buy back about 500 000 pollutants American vehicles.
In September 2015, VW admitted to secretly installing software on 500,000 US vehicles to cheat the government's exhaust emissions tests. He pleaded guilty in 2017 to criminal charges. A total of 13 people were charged in the United States, including Winterkorn and four Audi directors.
A Winterkorn lawyer could not be reached immediately on Friday.
The action of the SEC also calls VW Credit. (Report by David Shepardson, edited by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Shreejay Sinha)
Source link
