German Court Upholds Ruling Against Porsche's Piech

Germany's Federal Court of Justice, the country's highest civil court, has rejected a Porsche Automobil Holding SE's appeal of a lower court ruling against supervisory board member Ferdinand Piech.

A Stuttgart regional court found in February that Piech, who also is chairman of Volkswagen AG, committed a "grave violation" of his duties to Porsche shareholders in 2009.

The holding company amassed VW options in 2008 in a failed takeover attempt that left it with €10 billion in debt. Piech told reporters in 2009 that he didn't know how risky the options were and hadn't tried to find out.

The high court declined a full review of the case. A corporate board member must "keep himself informed about grave risks" related to management's actions, the judges opine. They say Piech acted against the law by neglecting his monitoring duties.

Piech has denied any wrongdoing.