BERLIN — German prosecutors have charged 15 executives from Volkswagen Group and a provider in reference to the diesel emissions scandal that emerged in 2015, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s workplace stated Saturday.

The suspects are accused of aiding and abetting fraud together with tax evasion, oblique false certification and prison promoting, stated Klaus Ziehe from the prosecutor’s workplace within the northern metropolis of Braunschweig.

The scandal noticed greater than 9 million autos of the VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda manufacturers offered to shoppers with a so-called defeat machine which helped to avoid environmental checks of diesel engines.

The prosecutor’s workplace didn’t title any of the charged executives, who’re accused of bringing vehicles onto the market in a situation that was not formally permitted, which means they have been unlawful and marketed misleadingly, Ziehe stated.

He added the indictment had now reached 1,554 pages.

The prosecutions have been earlier reported by information company Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

A Volkswagen spokesman stated a prison investigation towards the corporate was dropped in 2018 after it paid a effective, including that the corporate was not concerned within the upcoming path towards particular person suspects.

“In opposition to this background, we don’t touch upon the opposite fees which have come to mild…,” the spokesman added.

Volkswagen said last month that it will declare damages from its former CEO Martin Winterkorn and former Audi boss Rupert Stadler over the diesel emissions scandal, which was found in 2015, because it appears to be like to attract a line beneath its biggest-ever disaster.

The trial of Winterkorn and the opposite managers has been postponed till September because of the pandemic.