A criminal probe against Volkswagen’s chairman has been dropped by prosecutors in Stuttgart after the German automobile maker’s parent company agreed to pay €1.5m ($1.76m).

The charges against Hans Dieter Poetsch, who also chairs the executive board of Porsche, which holds 53.3% of the shares of Volkswagen, are related to the 2015 emissions scandal in which the car manufacturer cheated diesel-emissions tests in the United States.