Germany’s VW probe expanding

Prosecutors in Germany are expanding their probe into Volkswagen’s scandal over diesel cars that cheated on emissions tests, increasing the number of suspects and saying they have evidence former Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn may have known of the cheating earlier than he has claimed.

The announcement raises the legal stakes for the former head of Germany’s largest automaker. The prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig, near Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg headquarters, said Winterkorn was now being investigated on suspicion of fraud, beyond an earlier focus on a possible securities-market violation.

Winterkorn, 69, stepped down in September 2015, days after news emerged in the U.S. of Volkswagen’s use of software that turned emissions controls on during government tests and off when the car was driving on normal roads. He said at the time that he was not aware of any wrongdoing on his part.

He testified before a parliamentary committee last week that he first heard the term “defeat device,” the technical name for the illegal software, in September 2015 — even though U.S. authorities had been pressing Volkswagen for months over emissions test discrepancies and the cheating had been going on for several years.

Prosecutors in Braunschweig said, however, that “on the basis of local prosecutorial investigation,” Winterkorn “could have known of the manipulative software earlier than publicly asserted by him.”

Winterkorn’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Volkswagen said it is “cooperating fully” with authorities.

Prosecutors said they have increased the number of suspects in their investigation of VW to 37 people from 21.