BERLIN, March 26 — German auto giant Volkswagen said Friday it would seek unspecified damages from two former CEOs over the “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal that has cost it tens of billions of euros.

The company said in a statement it would seek compensation from Martin Winterkorn, ex-chief executive of the group, as well as Rupert Stadler, former head of its Audi division, for “breach of duty” in connection with the affair.

The Volkswagen group was plunged into crisis in 2015 when it admitted to installing cheating software in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide to dupe pollution tests. 

The scandal, based on allegations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has so far cost the German car giant more than €30 billion (RM146.5 billion) in fines, legal costs and compensation.

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The group said in its statement Friday that it had completed an internal investigation begun in October 2015 into the “causes and those responsible for the diesel crisis”.

“Breaches of duty by other members of the company board were not found,” it said. 

However the company said it had found evidence that Winterkorn had failed to take action from July 2015 to get “immediate and comprehensive” information about the use of the illegal software in vehicles sold in North America between 2009 and 2015.

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It said that he had also “failed in this context to ensure that the questions asked by the US authorities were truthfully and fully answered”. 

VW said its supervisory board had found that Stadler had not investigated from September 2016 whether Audi motors built into Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi model vehicles in the EU included the illicit software.

Winterkorn, 73, and four other ex-Volkswagen colleagues are due to go on trial together in Germany on charges of organised commercial fraud and serious tax evasion.

The start of proceedings has been repeatedly pushed back owing to the coronavirus pandemic and a new trial date was set Wednesday for September 16. 

The first senior executive to go on trial over “dieselgate” was Stadler whose fraud proceedings opened in Munich last year. — AFP