SEC accuses Volkswagen and Martin Winterkorn of massive fraud

March 16, 2019 by Steve Hanley

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Volkswagen furiously peddles to leave behind the stain of its scandal of diesel cheating. He announces his high expectations for the electric car to whoever wants to listen to him and, in truth, these affirmations make suggest that the company is one of the few traditional manufacturers to have embraced the future of the electric car.

Despite all his efforts, the scandal of cheating will not go away. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the scourge of Tesla and Elon Musk – has accused Volkswagen and its former managing director, Martin Winterkorn, of having swindled investors. OK that works. We are somehow new, is not it? So, what's the new news here? According to the SEC, Winterkorn was aware of the cheating years prior to 2015, when the cheating scandal exploded. In fact, the SEC stated that Winterkorn was involved in all the maneuvers aimed at cheating diesel emissions as early as 2007.

This could put Winterkorn in a deep legal position in the United States and Germany. He had previously testified before the German Parliament that he knew nothing about emissions-related fraud until the eve of the scandal in September 2015. The consequences of lying in Parliament could be, we do not know. have no idea, but a serious legal danger the departure of the man who was once revered as a national hero in a country where engineers are considered gods.

Winterkorn's lawyer, Steven Molo, refused a request for comment from the New York Times, referring all questions to Volkswagen. In a statement, Volkswagen said: "The complaint of the S.E.C. is legally and factually wrong, and Volkswagen will challenge it energetically." They should definitely. If the SEC succeeds, the company could consider additional billions of fines and penalties at a time when it needs all the pfennigs available to market competitive electric cars.

The action of the SEC could establish the fox among chickens around the world. Volkswagen reportedly sold about 8.5 million diesel cars equipped with software designed to deceive emissions tests around the world. Will these countries now reopen their own investigations in the light of the SEC's latest allegations? The future is terribly difficult to predict, but it is suspected that many extremely worried leaders are roaming the executive suite in Wolfsburg these days.

The question that will arise for consumers will be whether people will feel comfortable buying automobiles from a company that would have deliberately endangered as many lives in the past. Volkswagen sales have rebounded well since the dark days of 2015. People have brief memories, it seems.

Keywords: diesel emissions scandal, Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen, Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal