Even though the internal investigation into the diesel crisis by the U.S. law firm Jones Day is ongoing, the automaker has cleared members of the Board of Management and of the Supervisory Board from wrongdoing based on a separate legal review. The German law firm Gleiss Lutz conducted a separate probe that sought to determine whether there were any breaches of duty on the part of former or current members of the board.

"The Supervisory Board requested an examination into whether, on the basis of information currently available, serious and manifest breaches of duty on the part of any serving or former members of the Board of Management are to be established," Volkswagen AG said in a statement. "Although the investigation by Jones Day is still ongoing, according to information currently available, no serious and manifest breaches of duty on the part of any serving or former members of the Board of Management have been established that would stand in the way of granting ratification [of the actions of the serving members of the Board of Management for fiscal year 2015] at this time."

The move to ratify the decisions of the board in 2015 was also based on the preliminary information provided by Jones Day, the publication of which VW chose to withhold last month, presumably for legal reasons related to discussions with U.S. regulators at the time.

Again, VW opaquely acknowledged risks to the company that could come from the publication of the preliminary report, and did not offer any additional details from the investigation to back up its conclusion to ratify the board's decisions from 2015.

"Volkswagen expressly regrets that any publication of interim findings of the investigation by Jones Day would still involve unjustifiable risks for the Group and therefore cannot be effected at this time," VW said in a statement. "For this reason, no elaboration of the recommendation to ratify can be made at this time."

In clearing the board of "serious and manifest breaches of duty " in 2015, the automaker also highlighted its position that this decision does not prevent compensation claims against individual members of the board of management that could come later.

"The Supervisory Board points out that the proposed ratification by the Annual General Meeting does not imply any waiver of possible compensation claims," VW said. "In line with its statutory duties, the Supervisory Board has been examining since last fall, when the diesel matter became known, whether it is obligated to assert compensation claims against individual members of the Board of Management. For reasons of the ongoing investigation into the diesel matter, this examination is continuing."

The result, in effect, is that for the purposes of running the company, the board's past decisions are binding on the company, though given the unknown future result of the full investigation by Jones Day, the Board still reserves the right to hold accountable members whose conduct may be determined to constitute a breach of duty to the company.

VW's decision to withhold the publication of the preliminary report, which it promised to make public in the weeks following the outbreak of the diesel scandal, was met with dismay from industry observers, who also noted the sensitive timing of this decision that coincided with VW's negotiations with U.S. regulators at the end of April.

"Publishing such a preliminary report would not only endanger the complex and confidential settlement talks (with authorities and plaintiffs), it would also have a negative effect on ongoing investigations as individuals who have yet to be questioned could align their statements with the contents of the report," VW board director Wolfgang Porsche said last month.

VW has yet to agree on concrete details of a technical fix for some 482,000 2.0-liter diesel cars sold in the U.S., as well as some 85,000 3.0-liter diesels. The automaker has reached a deal in principle with U.S. regulators in late April to offer owners the option of selling their cars back to VW or letting VW fix them, though the specifics of the deal have not been made public.

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