To save money, the company opted instead to install defeat devices in the cars.
Advertisement
The New York suit stated that at least eight employees in VW’s engineering department deleted or removed incriminating data in August 2015 after a senior attorney advised them of an impending order not to destroy documents.
Speaking at a press conference the NY and MA attorneys-general stressed the importance of the lawsuit to send a message to other carmakers not to defraud the U.S. public.
“The idea that this level of fraud could take place and involve so many people at such high levels of a major global corporation is appalling”, said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman at a news conference, describing what he called “a cunningly cynical fraud at the heart of this scandal”.
The Massachusetts lawsuit seeks $25,000 for each day that the automaker violated state environmental laws from 2009 to 2016.
The suit did not charge Muller with being aware of the cheating.
Mueller was a project manager at Audi in 2006 when word allegedly reached him and Winterkorn – then CEO of Audi and later VW chief executive – that engineers were having difficulty meeting U.S. emissions standards, according to the complaints.
It noted a pattern of actions taken to deceive the public and regulators that featured the emissions-cheating devices being installed to “over and over” bypass environmental laws in NY and MA.
VW and its subsidiaries showed “utter disregard” for the environmental and health effects of its actions in the two states, according to an advance copy of the lawsuit, which is being filed in state Supreme Court in Albany County.
BERLIN-Volkswagen AG on Wednesday reported better-than-expected profit for the first six months of the year but took €2.2 billion ($2.42 billion) in additional charges against earnings related to its emissions-cheating scandal. About 25,000 cars were affected in NY, 15,000 in MA and almost 13,000 in Maryland.
The state lawsuits were a blow after Europe’s largest automaker reached a crucial milestone last month by hammering out a $15.3 billion settlement with US authorities. The technology was put in cars in 2004 but it made vehicles exceed European emissions standards.
Starting in 2008, Volkswagen and Audi, and later Porsche, began installing these defeat devices in several generations of US-market Volkswagen and Audi diesel engines that equipped over a dozen models, including flagship Audi luxury sedans and high-performance Porsche SUVs, with sales eventually totaling over 25,000 vehicles in New York State, 15,000 in MA, and 13,000 in Maryland before being pulled from sale previous year. Cars with model years 2009 through 2015 ended up with the software. Positive impacts from the efficiency programme also contributed, VW said.
The suits didn’t say what penalties the states would seek, but it could be hundreds of million of dollars, the Times reports.
New York’s Attorney-General called the use of “defeat devices” a “widespread conspiracy” and a “cunningly cynical fraud” committed by all levels of VW management.
Advertisement
Massachusetts Attorney-General Maura Healey said VW damaged the environment and “plotted a massive cover-up to mislead environmental regulators”. The states obtained 1.1 million documents totaling 7.5 million pages in their nine-month VW investigation.
