BERLIN — German prosecutors on Monday opened an investigation against former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn to establish what his role was in the emissions-rigging scandal that has shaken the world’s largest automaker.
The investigation will concentrate on the suspicion of fraud committed through the sale of vehicles with manipulated emissions data. It aims to determine who was responsible.
In the German system, anyone can file a criminal complaint with prosecutors, who are then obliged to examine it.
In this case, following the revelations about the rigged tests, prosecutors in Braunschweig, near VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, received about a dozen complaints, including one from Volkswagen itself, said spokeswoman Julia Meyer.
The company has admitted that it used a piece of engine software to cheat on diesel car emissions tests in the U.S. It will have to fix programming it has said is in some 11 million cars worldwide, far more than the 482,000 originally identified by U.S. authorities.
On Monday, Audi said that 2.1 million of its vehicles also had the engine, while Czech-based Skoda said 1.2 million vehicles were affected.
Volkswagen shares were down 7.1 percent in afternoon Frankfurt trading.
