Volkswagen Chairman Subject of Dieselgate-Related Investigation

Embattled automaker Volkswagen said that two members of its board including its Aufsichtsratsvorsitzenden, or chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch are under investigation by the Staatsanwaltschaft, or state prosecutor, in Braunschweig for violating securities laws.

Mr. Pötsch, who previously served as the company’s chief financial officer, stands accused of failing to notify VW shareholders of the financial risks of the Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal. Dieselgate has already caused the carmaker’s stock price to plunge and resulted in a $15 billion settlement in the United States.

In a statement released Sunday, Volkswagen said that it believes that its management board “duly fulfilled its disclosure obligation under German capital markets law.”

Mr. Pötsch became chairman of the supervisory board in October 2015, a few weeks after the Dieselgate scandal became public.

In June, the Staatsanwaltschaft and Volkswagen disclosed that former chief executive Martin Winterkorn as well as Herbert Diess, who headed up the company’s passenger car division as a management board member, were under investigation for breaching their fiduciary duty to disclose information that could impact the company’s share price.

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