Fallout from Volkswagen’s so-called Dieselgate scandal continues as German authorities investigate a company employee suspected of having destroyed proof that the carmaker cheated on emissions tests for its diesel cars.
State prosecutor Klaus Ziehe said on Thursday that the “recently launched” probe into an employee suspected of having suppressed documents and obstructed the investigation into the emissions cheating by asking colleagues “to get rid of data, which was partially carried out.”
Ziehe also expressed hope that the destroyed evidence won’t represent any difficulties for on-going investigation into Volkswagen’s activities.
“We’re currently assuming that we haven’t suffered any relevant setbacks, ” he said.
He also said the volume of information lost was minimal, and that some of it could be recovered.
German authorities are still trying to figure out who was behind the pollution cheating scandal at Volkswagen, after it emerged last September that Europe’s biggest carmaker had fitted at least 11 million of its diesel cars with emissions cheat devices worldwide.
jd/uhe (AFP, dpa)
