Report: VW’s Leaders Waited 3 Weeks to Reveal Diesel Cheating Risk

Volkswagen AG’s top management was warned more than three weeks before investors were informed that the company’s diesel emission cheating could cost as much as $18.5 billion, according to Bild am Sonntag.

The newspaper notes that the length of delay is relevant to German investigations into whether VW disclosed the potential liability in a timely fashion as required by security laws. The company has said it didn’t make an announcement earlier because it considered the exposure “controllable.”

Bild says then-CEO Martin Winterkorn and other top executives had been advised about the potential financial impact during a presentation on Aug. 25, 2015. VW told investors about the potential cost 24 days later—on the same day the cheating was publicly revealed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The August presentation to the executives was led by Oliver Schmidt, who headed VW’s U.S. emission compliance office at the time, Bild reports. Schmidt was arrested in Miami last January and is being held pending trial on 11 criminal charges related to the cheating scandal.

Among others who attended the August meeting were Heinz-Jakob Neusser, then VW’s product development chief; and Herbert Diess, who is still employed as VW’s brand leader, according to the newspaper.