Volkswagen of America issued false statements this week saying it would change its brand name to "Voltswagen,'' to stress its commitment to electric vehicles, only to reverse course and admit it was all a joke.
But the fake release could land Volkswagen in trouble with US securities regulators because its stock price rose nearly five per cent yesterday.
The incident is somewhat similar to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 2018 tweet that he had the funding secured to take the company private, a comment that drove up the stock price and was later proven untrue.
Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million in penalties to the U-S Securities and Exchange Commission.