REUTERS
German public prosecutors said they had searched Volkswagen premises at its headquarters in Wolfsburg and other places on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The prosecutor's office in Braunschweig near Wolfsburg said the target of searches had been documents and data storage with regard to VW's manipulations of diesel emissions, Reuters reported.
The searches were carried out by three prosecutors helped by the German state of Lower Saxony's office of criminal investigation, it said.
Die Welt reported that searches have also been conducted in private houses of company employees, according to prosecutors. However, the officials do not comment on the names of the subjects of searches. Martin Winterkorn, former company chief, is one of the known subjects of investigation.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board revealed their findings that while testing diesel cars of the Volkswagen Group they have detected manipulations that violate American environmental standards.
Volkswagen company is said to be recalling nearly 500,000 models in the U.S.
Global car makers have been under significant pressure from regulators in the U.S. and Europe in recent years to reduce bad emissions from their cars.
The U.S. has been Volkswagen's weakest market where for years it has struggled to make headway against U.S. and Japanese rivals in the world's biggest car market, according to the report.
Now Volkswagen is facing up to $18 billion in fines.