“Volkswagen and its former chief executive Martin Winterkorn must face a US lawsuit brought by American investors who allege the company improperly inflated its share price by cheating on emissions tests, a judge in California has ruled. [...] The investors allege that VW committed securities fraud both through the cheating and by failing to tell investors much earlier that it was in talks with US regulators over irregularities spotted between road tests and lab tests.”
The claimants, mainly municipal pension funds in the U.S., have accused VW of not having informed investors in a timely fashion about the emissions scandal it was embroiled in as well as understating possible financial liabilities.
From its side, Volkswagen argued that German courts were the proper place for investor lawsuits and asked U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to throw the proposed securities fraud lawsuits out of court.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer just rejected this request by VW explain in his ruling that "because the United States has an interest in protecting domestic investors against securities fraud, the court concludes that […] the plaintiffs' claims are properly before this court ".
Read the Bloomberg/FT article here.
Calling on all VW investors - Volkswagen Investor Claims: Registration