VW Execs Hiring U.S. Criminal Defense Lawyers?

A probe by the U.S. Dept. of Justice into Volkswagen AG’s diesel emission cheating scandal has prompted dozens of the carmaker’s executives in Germany to hire criminal defense attorneys, sources tell Bloomberg News.

The precautions come as Justice Dept. representatives have begun interviewing the managers on their home soil. The employees could be charged with crimes by the U.S., even though Germany’s constitution doesn’t permit its citizens to be extradited outside the EU, Bloomberg says.

In September U.S. prosecutors obtained a guilty plea from one former VW software engineer, who has been cooperating with the investigation into fraud and violation of the U.S. Clean Air Act. But it isn’t clear which executives the Justice Dept. may be targeting. Bloomberg notes that Germany prosecutors say they’ve found no evidence of wrongdoing among VW’s top current or former executives or board members.

Current CEO Matthias Mueller had hoped to settle any U.S. criminal complaints by mid-January when president-elect Donald Trump takes office. But that deadline appears unlikely to be met.