Volkswagen: Chairman Didn’t Know Early About Emissions Cheating

German carmaker Volkswagennegates allegations against its Chairman Hans Dieter Poetschas it’s said that he knew about the carmaker’s emission test cheating three months before US authorities made it public three years ago.

German weekly Bild am Sonntag, citing internal documents from investigators, revealed that the carmaker’s finance head at the time Poetsch got to know about the violations of the rules in late June 2015.

It’s also learnt that the VW legal department prepared a confidential presentation, which was made available to investigators in proceedings about its alleged violation.

The presentation, according to a Reuters report, termed “Sacramento” stated: “The U.S. emissions rules were being violated and that the company may also have breached its supervisory obligations.”

According to testimony from a leading VW lawyer: “Poetsch received the presentation on June 29, 2015. He was also informed then that 600,000 vehicles in the U.S. were affected and that the financial risk for VW stood at 35 billion euros ($39.8 billion).” The testimony is referred to as “witness P.”

However, Volkswagen issued a statement on Sunday stating: “The presentation by the witness P. is emphatically rejected as inaccurate,” VW said.