German prosecutors are investigating former Volkswagen group CEO Martin Winterkorn to find out what his role in the automaker’s now widely publicized ‘dieselgate’ diesel emissions scandal was. Winterkorn resigned from his position at the world’s largest automaker last Wednesday following admission that it rigged millions diesel cars to pass U.S. emissions tests.
According to the Associated Press, the investigation, to be conducted by prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, will focus on the potential fraud laws broken through selling vehicles with falsified emissions data and aim to find who is responsible.
German law allows for anyone to file a criminal complaint against a person or entity and prosecutors are obliged to investigate it. Following news of the rigged emissions tests, prosecutors near VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters received multiple complaints, including one from VW itself. At this point, it’s not clear how long the investigation will last, though a spokeswoman for the German prosecutors said other similar investigations have taken “months, sometimes years.”
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