The US Justice Department was unavailable for comments.
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Cars were configured to reduce harmful nitrogen oxide emissions during official pollution tests, while allowing emissions of up to 40 times the legal limit during actual driving.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that the Clean Air Act not only forbids the use of defeat devices but also forbids the sale of components used as defeat devices if the seller is aware that the component will be used as such.
In a filing late Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, lawyers cited confidential documents turned over by the German automaker to plaintiffs attorneys in making the new allegations against the auto supplier.
The documents include records and communications between Bosch, VW and US regulators. The information includes items such as an email in 2011 to the California Air Resources Board that shows the supply firm’s “deep understanding of what regulators allowed and would not allow and what Bosch did to help VW obtain approval”.
“Bosch played a crucial role in the fraudulent enterprise and profited handsomely from it”, the court papers said.
Several months ago, the name Robert Bosch surfaced in news reports about Volkswagen’s ongoing self-inflicted diesel-emissions scandal.
Mr Denner, who became chairman in 2012, spent much of his career in the Bosch unit that produces computers that steer motor functions, known as engine control units or ECU’s. Bosch’s actions, they said, “demonstrate that Bosch was a knowing and active participant in the decade-long illegal enterprise to defraud USA consumers”. The carmaker, which has set aside 18 billion euros ($20 billion) to cover worldwide costs related to the scandal, reached an agreementwith USA authorities in July that will cost it as much as $15.3 billion in potential buybacks or possible fixes for affected models.
VW’s settlements to get 482,000 emissions-cheating diesel cars off USA roads cover auto owners, the US government and 44 states.
In a June 28 press conference, Deputy Attorney General of the justice department Sally Yates didn’t rule out the possibility of criminal charges being laid on Volkswagen.
Bosch is expecting some financial fallout from lawsuits and government inquiries, setting aside the equivalent of $747 million Dollars to cover potential costs. “We will follow the facts wherever they go and we will determine whether to bring criminal charges against any companies or individual wrongdoers”.
A Wall Street Journal report says prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office and justice department’s fraud and environmental crimes sections are considering whether or not to aim for a guilty plea from Volkswagen, or aim for a deferred prosecution agreement, similar to the one Toyota and General Motors settled on following safety defects.
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The allegations against Bosch aren’t new but have acquired greater urgency in the wake of the $15 billion settlement on behalf of U.S.Volkswagen customers and US authorities.
