FRANKFURT -- Prosecutors in the German city of Brunswick said on Monday they were pressing criminal charges against former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn in connection with the automaker's manipulation of diesel emissions testing.
Four other executives are also being charged, the prosecutors' office said in a statement. The five are charged with fraud and violation of competition law.
Winterkorn is accused of serious fraud because he failed to disclose the illegal manipulation of diesel engines to the responsible authorities in Europe and the U.S. and to customers. He also failed to prohibit the further installation of "defeat device" software after May 25, 2014, resulting in significantly higher fines, the statement said.
The prosecutors allege that Winterkorn approved a software update in November 2014 at a cost of 23 million euros, which was "useless and was intended to further conceal the true reason for the increased pollutant levels in normal vehicle operation."
VW has had to recall hundreds of thousands of cars around the world since it admitted in Sept. 2015 to installing illegal software in diesel engines to cheat strict U.S. anti-pollution tests.
Automotive News Europe and Bloomberg contributed to this report.
