Volkswagen could take legal action against ousted chairman Ferdinand Piech after reports suggested he informed senior members of the board of the emissions scandal six months before it became public.
It is alleged that in March 2015 Piech told then-boss Martin Winterkorn and members of the board’s steering committee about the cheating of diesel emissions tests, but VW refutes the claim.
Volkswagen released a statement on Wednesday saying: "The supervisory board of Volkswagen AG emphatically repudiates the assertions made by Ferdinand Piech as reported recently in the media.
“All affected members of the executive committee of the supervisory board, acting independently of each other, have unequivocally and emphatically rejected all assertions made by Ferdinand Piech as untrue.
"The board of management will carefully weigh the possibility of measures and claims against Mr Piech."
Volkswagen added it will not comment on ongoing investigations.
Piech, who is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, left the company in April 2015 and Winterkorn followed in the wake of dieselgate five months later.
Winterkorn is currently facing an enquiry into his role in dieselgate, but he maintains he had no direct involvement in the decision-making process behind the emissions cheating software.
The initial media reports against Piech have not been verified and some members of the steering committee at the time, including Berthold Huber who took over as interim boss after Piech’s departure, have publicly denied they were informed of the cheat devices.
The emissions scandal has so far cost Volkswagen around £15bn in recalls, fines and compensation and resulted in worldwide diesel-emissions investigations involving other manufacturers.
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VW Board
This man is the root cause of it all
Dilly wrote:
He was ousted because the board misguidedly rallied around Winterkorn - who is now out anyway. There is probably more than a grain of truth in what he's saying. Remember his reason for wanting to oust Winterkorn is because of dying sales in the US - this is still true. Winterkorn was also caught pants down in the wake of the i3 and i8 - the latter a genuine success. Instead he commissioned a lackluster - design wise - new R8 which apparently is a mediocre seller - more Hurucans have been sold so far. In fact there may not be a R8 mk3.
All too easy to criticise Piech - the man we love to hate - but don't let your hatred obscure the truth.
I think Winterkorn deliberately chose to ignore the emissions scandal before it went public.