Court Orders Porsche SE to Pay €47 Million to VW Investors
A German court has ordered Porsche Automobil Holding SE to pay its shareholders €47 million ($54 million) for failing to notify them quickly enough about diesel emission cheating by Volkswagen AG.
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A German court has ordered Porsche Automobil Holding SE to pay its shareholders €47 million ($54 million) for failing to notify them quickly enough about diesel emission cheating by Volkswagen AG.
Porsche SE, which owns 31% of VW and controls 52% of the carmaker’s voting rights, claims the lawsuit is without merit and vows to appeal the ruling. VW has paid more than €27 billion ($30.8 billion) in fines, penalties and restitution after admitting it rigged 11 million diesels to evade pollution laws.
When the scandal broke three years ago, Martin Winterkorn was the CEO of Porsche SE and the VW Group. Once Germany’s highest-paid CEO, he resigned shortly after the cheating was revealed.
Winterkorn has been the subject of a fraud investigation by German prosecutors to determine when he learned of the diesel cheating. The U.S. Dept. of Justice charged him five months ago on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud for supporting and covering up the wrongdoing.
The U.S. indictment says he knew about the cheating 16 months before it was uncovered but agreed with other executives to continue the fraud.
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