VW expects to sanction more employees in emissions scandal: chairman

GENEVA Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) expects to broaden disciplinary action beyond the two dozen employees the carmaker has already suspended in a diesel emissions cheating scandal, Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said on Monday.

“It is to be expected that there will yet be a whole string of (personnel) consequences,” Poetsch told reporters late on Monday on the eve of the Geneva auto show.

The automaker has refrained from taking action against employees at the request of U.S. authorities in order to not jeopardize the success of investigations, Poetsch said.

Legal inquiries will end on Friday when VW is set to plead guilty in Detroit to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges it installed secret software in vehicles to allow them to emit pollution up to 40 times the legal limit.

As part of a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. regulators, VW agreed to sweeping reforms, new audits and oversight by an independent monitor for three years to resolve diesel emissions-cheating investigations.

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach and Andreas Cremer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)