VW will demand compensation from ex officers for the emissions scandal

German carmaker Volkswagen (VW) announced that it will demand compensation from former director Martin Winterkorn and ex-director of Audi, Rupert Stadler for damage caused by the diesel emissions scandal, which shook the entire group. Europe's largest carmaker said it had concluded, after an extensive legal investigation, that Winterkorn and Stadler had breached their obligations. Volkswagen hired a law firm to conduct the audit, which included more than 65 petabytes of data and 480 million papers. According to the German automaker, approximately 1.6 million of these files were “identified as relevant, screened, and reviewed.” In addition, the law firm held 1,550 interviews and analyzed files from prosecutorial and legal cases that occurred as a result of the company's activities around the world. Volkswagen claims that the internal inquiry was “by far the most comprehensive and complex investigation carried out in a company in German economic history.” Therefore, the company will file an action for damages against two former top managers for negligence under the Companies Act. However, the group did not say how much compensation it would claim. It merely added that it had not found any infringement in the case of other members of VW's board of directors.