Volkswagen executives may have known about the amount of compensation for cheating and were suspected of failing to inform investors in a timely manner

According to German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Volkswagen manager Oliver Schmidt, who was arrested in Miami, informed Volkswagen's then CEO Martin Winterkorn and other managers on August 25, 2015 that diesel emissions cheating could cost up to $18.5 billion, but Volkswagen's top management at the time failed to inform investors in time. Investors only learned about Volkswagen's cheating on September 18, 2015, but it had been nearly a month since Schmidt informed Volkswagen executives.

Bild am Sonntag said Schmidt informed Winterkorn of the maximum penalty for cheating at a meeting that also included Heinz-Jakob Neusser, Volkswagen's then-development chief, and Herbert Diess, the brand's current chief executive.

German securities law requires companies to disclose any market-sensitive information in a timely manner. Currently, German prosecutors are investigating Volkswagen, including whether it disclosed details in a timely manner. Winterkorn, Diess and Volkswagen's current chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch are all subjects of the investigation, but the above executives have denied any illegal behavior. On July 9 local time, prosecutors investigating Volkswagen's suspected market manipulation declined to comment on the matter. In its annual report, Volkswagen said that the reason it did not disclose the details of the cheating scandal until September 18, 2015 was because it believed at the time that "the costs were controllable relative to the Volkswagen Group's business activities."

A Volkswagen spokesman said the company would not comment on the report because the matter is under investigation. But Volkswagen has previously said it did not violate any disclosure regulations. Winterkorn's attorney could not be reached at press time, while Neusser's attorney declined to respond to the report, saying he had not seen Schmidt's testimony.

Bild am Sonntag also said Winterkorn and Diess had learned about Volkswagen's use of cheating software at a meeting on July 27, 2015, just a few weeks after Diess joined the company.

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