Ex VW head denies responsibility for diesel scandal

Former Volkswagen Group chief executive Martin Winterkorn denied responsibility for the diesel emissions scandal in court testimony on Wednesday, more eight years after revelations of the affair rocked the German auto giant.

Winterkorn, 76, took the witness stand in a civil lawsuit brought by VW investors. Winterkorn is also facing two criminal proceedings over his alleged involvement in the scandal, in which VW diesel engines were programmed to appear cleaner in emissions testing than in real-world operation.

"I consider these accusations to be unfounded," Winterkorn said on Wednesday of the fraud and other charges against him.

"I have decided to testify here as a witness in order to make my contribution to clarifying the facts in the so-called diesel complex," said Winterkorn in a personal statement.

Winterkorn resigned in September 2015, a few days after the emissions manipulations at the car manufacturer became known, but claimed shortly afterwards that he had known nothing about the illegal behaviour before the scandal was made public.

The scandal came to light only after regulators in the United States discovered that numerous Volkswagen vehicles had computer software designed to lower toxic emissions only during testing.

Some of the allegations against VW and Winterkorn date back to 2007.

In his testimony on Wednesday, Winterkorn said he only found out about problems with the US authorities "very late" and "initially only incompletely."

"If I had been given a complete picture of the internal processes in the responsible specialist departments, I would not have hesitated to tackle the issues directly and clarify them," said Winterkorn.

He added that he would have personally flown to the US to speak with regulators directly.

In the proceedings under the Capital Markets Model Case Act, investors have been fighting for compensation since 2018 because they suffered billions in share price losses after the scandal came to light. They claim that the company failed to properly inform them of risks in good time.

The plaintiff in the case is Deka Investment, the defendants are Volkswagen AG and the holding company Porsche SE.

Former Volkswagen senior executives Herbert Diess and Matthias Müller had previously testified in the case.