FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen announced it was weighing steps against ex-Chairman Ferdinand Piech after media reports said he had informed key supervisory board members about potential diesel cheating six months before the scandal became public.
While the allegations about whether Piech had informed the company's top directors as early as March 2015 could not immediately be verified, Volkswagen's strong rejection of the claims signals a deepening rift with the ousted chairman.
Neither Ferdinand Piech nor his representatives could be reached for comment on Wednesday.
"The supervisory board of Volkswagen AG emphatically repudiates the assertions made by Ferdinand Piech as reported recently in the media," VW's supervisory board said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The board of management will carefully weigh the possibility of measures and claims against Mr Piech," it said, adding that VW would not comment on ongoing investigations as a matter of principle.
Labor representatives Bernd Osterloh and Berthold Huber, both members of the supervisory board's steering committee at the time, called for Volkswagen's management to consider legal steps against Piech.
Huber, who took over as interim chairman after Piech was ousted, has since left the board.
"The allegations are untrue. Had Dr Piech informed us, we may have been able to spare the company and its workforce from substantial harm. We now expect the management board to thoroughly evaluate whether steps need to be taken against Piech," Osterloh and Huber said in a joint statement issued late on Wednesday.
Huber told Reuters: "I can swear in any court in the world that Piech did not talk to me about the matter."
Bild am Sonntag said Piech had raised the issue with then-CEO Martin Winterkorn and members of the supervisory board steering committee in March 2015 after getting a tip-off from an Israeli security firm.
Winterkorn had assured him that everything was under control, Bild am Sonntag reported.
Winterkorn was not immediately available for comment.
Volkswagen admitted in September 2015 to having installed software to cheat diesel-emission tests in the U.S., causing a collapse in its share price, Winterkorn's resignation and tens of billions of euros in fines and legal costs.
Piech had said the previous April he was "distancing himself" from Winterkorn, without elaborating, sparking a power struggle that saw senior VW figures rallying around Winterkorn and forced family patriarch Piech to step down.
There’s a lot at stake for VW andPiech, who orchestrated the manufacturer’s rise from a troubled German industrial behemoth into a global automotive powerhouse that outsold industry leader Toyota Motor Corp. last year. VW reached settlement agreements with U.S. and Canadian authorities in recent months worth about $23 billion to make up for cheating on emissions tests.
Fresh ammunition
But evidence that top management was aware of the illicit conduct would provide fresh ammunition for legal claims from disgruntled investors across the globe, potentially adding billions of dollars in costs.
Piech’s own role in the scandal remains unclear.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice -- and signed off by VW -- the cheating dates back to at least May 2006. Piech ousted Winterkorn’s predecessor as VW CEO, Bernd Pischetsrieder, that year.
The departure came several months after VW shot down talks over a far-reaching alliance with Daimler AG which would have given VW access to its German peer’s diesel technology, people familiar with the matter said last month.
Bloomberg contributed to this report.
