By William Boston

BERLIN -- Former Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn and other executives will pay the company a total of $351 million to settle lawsuits for their alleged roles in a decadelong emissions fraud that continues to cast a shadow over the car maker six years after it was disclosed by U.S. authorities, the company said Wednesday.

Mr. Winterkorn, who became CEO in 2007 and still faces criminal charges on allegations of fraud in the U.S. and Germany, was forced to step down in September 2015, days after the U.S. charged the company with fraud and violating U.S. environmental law as a result of rigging nearly 11 million vehicles to cheat emissions tests and then covering it up.

VW, now with its second CEO since Mr. Winterkorn's departure, has sought to put the scandal behind it, launching one of the industry's most expensive pivots to electric vehicles, but the legal and financial implications continue to reverberate.

Separately on Wednesday, Berlin prosecutors filed charges against Mr. Winterkorn alleging that he made false statements in sworn testimony to an investigative committee of the German parliament in January 2017. The prosecutor alleges that Mr. Winterkorn intentionally misled the lawmakers about when he first became aware of the illegal software on VW diesel engines.

French prosecutors said Wednesday that on May 6 they had issued preliminary charges against VW for fraud in connection with the diesel scandal. Prosecutors ordered VW to post EUR10 million, equivalent to about $12.2 million, in bail and provide proof of a bank guarantee of EUR60 million to cover potential compensation.

News of the charges only came to light after the French issued identical charges against French car maker Renault SA on Tuesday. Renault denied any wrongdoing.

A VW spokesman said the company had already settled charges for fraud in the diesel affair in Germany and paid fines of around EUR2 billion. The company said European Union law protected it from being charged for the same offense again in another EU member state. The company also said French consumers hadn't suffered any compensable loss.

VW filed a lawsuit against Mr. Winterkorn, former Audi chief Rupert Stadler and other executives in March, alleging gross negligence in their duties as officers of the company. Mr. Winterkorn and Mr. Stadler have repeatedly dismissed the allegations and any intentional involvement in the scandal or its coverup.

After months of negotiations, Mr. Winterkorn has agreed to pay VW EUR11.2 million, equivalent to $13.6 million. Mr. Stadler has agreed to pay EUR4.1 million. Former Audi board member Stefan Knirsch agreed to pay EUR1 million to settle the case against him, and Wolfgang Hatz, a former Porsche board member and key developer of racing engines, agreed to a EUR1.5 million settlement.

Mr. Winterkorn couldn't be reached for comment through his lawyer. Mr. Stadler declined to comment. Mr. Hatz couldn't be reached for comment.

Mr. Knirsch, who is alleged to have ignored information he received that would have exposed the use of illegal software on Audi engines, said he engaged in no wrongdoing.

As part of the settlement, he said, VW and the insurers agreed to pay his legal fees resulting from the litigation against him in Germany and the U.S. "This is a step forward and hopefully we can come to a close soon," he said.

The lion's share of the deal is a EUR270 million payout from a group of directors and officers insurance companies, a policy that insures senior executives against claims of mismanagement or misconduct.

The deal still needs to be approved by shareholders at VW's annual meeting next month.

The settlement is one of the largest by any business executive in Germany. Yet it is a far cry from the more than $35 billion in fines, penalties, compensation and legal fees that VW has accrued since U.S. authorities disclosed the scandal.

VW's supervisory board, which includes representatives of the Porsche and Piech founding families, the state of Lower Saxony, Qatar and top officials from Germany's powerful IG Metall trade union, had sought the record amount as a precedent and warning to existing and future managers.

For the past decade, the benchmark for compensation from former executives believed to have failed in their oversight duties was Heinrich von Pierer, the long-serving former CEO of industrial electronics conglomerate Siemens AG.

Mr. von Pierer agreed in 2010 to pay EUR5 million to settle a lawsuit brought against him by Siemens in the wake of a bribery scandal that rocked the company.

A group of executives under his supervision also paid between EUR500,000 and EUR4 million to settle lawsuits against them.

Mr. Winterkorn still faces criminal charges in the U.S. and Germany. Mr. Stadler is on trial in Munich, facing charges of fraud for continuing to sell Audi vehicles with tainted engines after becoming aware at the end of September 2015 that the vehicles contained illegal software.

Nick Kostov contributed to this article.

Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-09-21 1614ET