Top Volkswagen executives engaged in a "massive fraud" to intentionally sell diesel cars that violated emissions rules, CNN said a lawsuit alleges that was filed today by the New York and Massachusetts attorneys general.
VW has admitted that about 500,000 diesel cars it sold in the U.S. had software designed to cheat on emissions tests. But it repeatedly claimed the deception was executed by lower level employees, without any knowledge of top executives.
Last month the company reached a $15 billion settlement with regulators and state attorneys general to compensate U.S. car owners, repair the cars to lower emissions, and to pay environmental fines.
But the new civil suit by New York and Massachusetts would levy additional fines on Volkswagen. It says the state investigations, based on a review of internal emails and documents, shows that the deception reached Volkswagen's top levels. Martin Winterkorn, the CEO of Volkswagen who resigned shortly after the scandal became public, is one of the executives identified in the suit.