By Max Bernhard 
 

Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE) on Monday denied allegations that its chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch knew about the financial implications of the car maker's emissions cheating almost three months before it became public in September 2015.

German weekly Bild am Sonntag reported at the weekend that a Volkswagen lawyer testified to German prosecutors that Mr. Poetsch, who was finance chief at the time, allegedly knew of the diesel manipulation in June 2015 and was also notified about the resulting 35 billion euros ($39.82 billion) in financial risks.

The probe of the Braunschweig prosecutor's office is focused on whether Volkswagen knew of the scandal earlier and whether it notified the stock market on time.

Volkswagen said in a statement that it has long known about the witness's statements cited in the Bild report and "emphatically" rejects them as inaccurate.

"The information was taken seriously, intensively checked and questioned," it said.

The company admitted that the "so-called diesel issue" was the subject of several discussions in the summer of 2015, some of which included Mr. Poetsch.

"However, none of these discussions had a corresponding content and quality that could have resulted in a capital market relevance for Mr. Poetsch," Volkswagen said.

Until U.S. authorities made Volkswagen's manipulation public on Sept. 18, 2015, the company's management board "at no time had sufficiently concrete indications of a price-sensitive situation," it said.

Write to Max Bernhard at max.bernhard@dowjones.com; @mxbernhard

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 10, 2018 08:42 ET (13:42 GMT)