Nathan Bomey

USA TODAY

German automaker Volkswagen Group said Wednesday that when it initially discovered its own emissions scandal it didn't think the issue would cost very much.

The admission — part of a statement designed to show that it did not defraud investors — came as the automaker may be facing tens of billions in U.S. fines and lawsuits, according to analysts.

The company also took the unusual step of disclosing certain details regarding former CEO Martin Winterkorn's knowledge of the emissions violations before they were disclosed to U.S. regulators.

VW cited one unidentified automaker as having paid a $100 million fine in 2014 after certain violations of U.S. emissions laws.

"Volkswagen was advised that in the past" that U.S. emissions penalties "were not especially high for a company the size of Volkswagen," the company said Wednesday in the statement.

It added: "It was expected that the diesel matter could be resolved with the U.S. authorities by disclosing the software modification, agreeing on appropriate measures to restore vehicle compliance with the law and the payments of potential fines in line with prior U.S. settlements."

Instead, the company is entangled in a thicket of government investigations, internal probes and consumer lawsuits — not to mention a U.S. sales slump.

The company issued the statement in response to a German shareholder lawsuit accusing the company of failing to properly disclose the potential cost of the scandal when it first erupted.

Volkswagen has already set aside more than $7 billion to cover the cost of the scandal, which could eventually cost nearly $17 billion, according to an estimate in October by Sanford Bernstein analysts.

Volkswagen has repeatedly said it's committed to restoring trust with consumers after admitting that it rigged up to 11 million diesel vehicles, including small cars and sport-utility vehicles, with software designed to cheat emissions regulations.

In the U.S., some of the affected vehicles emit harmful pollutants at rates of up to 40 times U.S. standards.

The issue exploded Sept. 18, when the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board disclosed the matter in a call with news media after first learning of emissions irregularities discovered by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) in May 2014.

Volkswagen said Wednesday that a memo on the ICCT study was delivered to Winterkorn on May 23, 2014.

"Whether and to which extent Mr. Winterkorn took notice of this memo at that time is not documented," VW said.

An automaker of Volkswagen's size — the company is the second-largest in the world — encounters numerous product issues, the company noted. Many of those problems are not important enough to draw the attention of senior leaders.

But Winterkorn was told directly about the diesel irregularities in a meeting July 27, 2015, where now-VW brand chairman Herbert Diess was also informed of the issue, VW said.

"Concrete details of this meeting have not yet been reconstructed," VW said. "In particular, it is not clear whether these participants understood already at this point in time that the change in the software violated U.S. environmental regulations. Mr. Winterkorn asked for further clarification of the issue."

By late August, a Volkswagen board member concluded that the software was an illegal "defeat device" under U.S. law, and the company notified the EPA on Sept. 3, the company said. Winterkorn, the company says, was "informed accordingly in a note" Sept. 4.

Two weeks later, EPA disclosed the matter publicly, "which was unexpected," VW said.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.