US sues VW for ‘fraud’

VOLKSWAGEn is being sued in the uS for committing a ‘ massive fraud’ on investors while it covered up the diesel emissions scandal for almost a decade.

The German car giant has been accused of selling £10bn worth of bonds at inflated prices while bosses knew that illegal software had been installed in cars to cheat emissions tests. The uS Securities & Exchange commission said VW’s former chief executive Martin Winterkorn and ‘numerous’ other senior officials ‘repeatedly lied to and misled’ uS investors, consumers and regulators.

A VW spokesman said that the SEc’s complaint is ‘legally and factually flawed, and Volkswagen will contest it vigorously’.