Earlier this year, Volkswagen said it would make public its investigation into the diesel defeat device scandal.
VW now says the report won’t be made public.
The German automaker hired Jones Day to conduct the investigation and VW says that “this investigation is already far advanced and is being pursued intensely.”
“For this purpose, approximately 65 million documents were submitted for electronic review, of which more than 10 million were forwarded for review by Volkswagen’s lawyers,” the company said. “Around 450 interviews have also been conducted about the diesel matter; dozens of additional interviews are planned. Based on the current assessment, Jones Day expects the investigation to conclude in the fourth quarter of 2016.”
“After a thorough examination of the legal situation, the Supervisory Board and the Management Board of Volkswagen have nevertheless had to recognize that a disclosure of interim results of the investigation at this point in time would present unacceptable risks for Volkswagen and, therefore, cannot take place now,” the company said. “This decision is based on the assessment of the U.S. law firms retained by Volkswagen — Sullivan & Cromwell and Jones Day — which have both strongly advised against such a disclosure independently of each other.”
“Volkswagen regrets that it has had to move away from the original plan to disclose interim results of the investigation by the end of April,” the company said.
VW said that one reason for the change of position is “Volkswagen’s complex negotiations with a large number of parties in the United States (including private plaintiffs and multiple U.S. regulators, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Federal Trade Commission, the Attorneys General of each of the 50 states, and, in particular, the U.S. Department of Justice) have entered a decisive phase sooner than anticipated and require Volkswagen to maintain the highest degree of confidentiality.”
“The extensive and confidential nature of these negotiations and Volkswagen’s cooperation with the Department of Justice restrict Volkswagen´s ability to comment further on necessarily tentative results of the continuing investigation.”
“The further disclosure or characterization of interim results, which are currently available, would likely prejudice the rest of the investigation at this time, in particular because individuals who have yet to be questioned could align their statements with the contents of the interim report.”
“In counsel’s view, a disclosure would also significantly impair Volkswagen’s cooperation with the Department of Justice and weaken Volkswagen’s position in any remaining proceedings.”
“In counsel’s view, such disclosure could also jeopardize the credit that Volkswagen may expect to receive in the event of its full cooperation with the Department of Justice. According to Volkswagen’s legal advisers, this could have very substantial negative financial consequences.
lf a full settlement can be achieved with the Department of Justice, the Supervisory Board and the Management Board currently expect that a detailed statement of the facts of this matter will be made public in the U.S. at that time. This is because the settlement of a criminal investigation with the Department of Justice is customarily accompanied by a detailed statement of facts, agreed to by the parties.”
The company said that it “explicitly regrets that it is not able to publish interim results by the end of April as initially planned.”