Judge: VW Must Face Lawsuit Led By Pensions

Pension giant CalSTRS is already leading a lawsuit against Volkswagen in German court.

Back on U.S. soil, a judge has OK’d a lawsuit brought by investors, including a number of smaller pensions, accusing the car company of not informing the market soon enough about financial liabilities related to the emissions scandal.

From Reuters:

The plaintiffs, mostly U.S. municipal pension funds, have accused VW of not having informed the market in a timely fashion about the issue as well as understating possible financial liabilities, according to the 41-court document seen by Reuters.

[…]

The lawsuits said VW and its executives misled the investing public “assuring them to the contrary — namely, that the diesel vehicles met all applicable emissions standards” and it “understated the liabilities that it would suffer as a result of its known emissions non-compliance.”

[…]

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer rejected a request by VW brand chief Herbert Diess to have the proposed securities fraud lawsuits tossed out of a California court.

Volkswagen argued that German courts were the proper place for investor lawsuits.

Breyer said in his ruling that “because the United States has an interest in protecting domestic investors against securities fraud” the lawsuits should go forward in a U.S. court.