Dozens of Volkswagen AG officials in Germany have hired U.S. criminal defense lawyers as the Justice Department ramps up meetings with managers to gather evidence that may lead to charges against executives, people familiar with the matter said.
U.S. authorities have traveled to Germany to arrange interviews with managers and seek cooperation in their probe of the automaker’s efforts to subvert anti-pollution rules, the people said. With some interviews yet to take place, it makes it less likely, they said, that prosecutors will be able to reach a resolution with the company by the close of the Obama administration as some officials had hoped.
The U.S. has already helped broker a civil settlement that will cost the Wolfsburg, Germany, company more than $16 billion in fines and penalties. The Justice Department, characterizing the diesel cheating as a 10-year conspiracy to deceive environmental officials, has said it will pursue criminal charges against not only the company but also individuals.
Environmental Capstone
The two-pronged approach would make good on the department’s 2015 call for prosecutors to focus on the individuals behind corporate misdeeds, a policy drafted after criticism that it had entered into multibillion-dollar corporate settlements while failing to prosecute the executives.
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