Former Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn has been summoned to testify at a German court in relation to a lawsuit over the automaker’s diesel emissions cheating.
Bild reports that Winterkorn is one of 28 individuals asked to testify at the trial by Judge Fabian Reuschle of the Stuttgart regional court. Among the others are Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler and Bosch chief executive Volkmar Denner. Additionally, German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer has been asked to appear.
Select Volkswagen shareholders are seeking compensation from the automaker, as well as Porsche SE, for not quickly informing markets of the liabilities the conglomerate could face over its diesel emissions cheating software in the United States.
The New York Times was unable to get a comment from Winterkorn.
Winterkorn infamously resigned from his post at Volkswagen just days after the scandal emerged. A couple of weeks later, he also stepped down as Porsche SE chairman.
According to an indictment, Winterkorn actively tried to cover up the company’s use of diesel cheat devices. The indictment also asserts that he was told about the cheating as early as May 2014 and presided over a meeting in July 2015 where Oliver Schmidt was told to lie to regulators about the software.