Volkswagen investors have demanded greater transparency and reforms at the carmaker after it admitted to criminal offences in rigging U.S. emissions tests and U.S. prosecutors indicted six current and former managers over the scandal.
The automaker agreed to pay $4.3 billion in civil and criminal fines in a settlement with the US Justice Department on Wednesday, the largest ever US penalty levied on an automaker, Reuters noted.
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VW admitted about 40 employees at its VW and Audi brands deleted thousands of documents in an effort to hide from US authorities the systematic use of so-called defeat devices to rig diesel emissions tests, a scale of wrongdoing that led some investors to call for deep reforms.
"What is most disturbing … is the pattern of deception, both in developing and perfecting the defeat devices, as well as deliberately obstructing the subsequent investigation," Annie Bersagel, an adviser for responsible investments at Norwegian Mutual Insurance company Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP), told Reuters.
"Going forward we would like to see more truly independent directors. This may change governance at the company where we see some issues, for example the awarding of large bonuses to current and former managers. We would like to see a clawback provision relating to violations."
Ingo Speich, a fund manager at Union Investment, said the company needed to "put everything on the table" about its wrongdoing to regain the trust of investors.
Reuters noted VW still faces lawsuits from about 20 US states and from US investors, and will spend years buying back or fixing nearly 580,000 polluting US vehicles. It also faces claims from customers in Europe and Asia, after it admitted in September 2015 that up to 11m vehicles worldwide could have defeat device software installed.
So far, the scandal has cost VW up to $22bn in the US alone, in deals with owners, regulators, states and dealers. Despite the fines, VW has continued to pay bonuses to top managers.
For 2015, the year the scandal was uncovered, VW agreed to pay 12 current and former members of the management board a total of EUR63.2m (US$67.2 million) in fixed and flexible remuneration, Reuters said. The automaker said board members would have 30% of their variable bonus awards withheld if the share price remained below EUR140.
VW shares were trading at EUR151.89at the time of the report.
Six current and former VW managers have been indicted, including Heinz-Jakob Neusser, former head of development for the VW brand. Five are in Germany and it was unclear if they would come to the US to face charges since Germany typically does not extradite its citizens.
While senior managers, none of them are – or were – members of VW's management board, Reuters noted.
US attorney general Loretta E. Lynch said US authorities would continue to pursue those responsible for emissions cheating.
"This announcement does not mean that our investigation is complete … We will continue to pursue the individuals responsible for orchestrating this damaging conspiracy," Lynch said.
