Volkswagen settled the class actions, brought by law firms Bannister Law and Maurice Blackburn, in mid-September for a figure that could rise to as high as $127 million, but did not admit liability.

Cars with the defeat device produced artificially low emissions readings when tested by authorities compared with their real-world performance.

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Volkswagen, which owns other car makers including Audi, Porsche and Skoda, has already paid out about €30 billion ($48 billion) globally in fines, compensation and legal costs as a result of the scandal.

It disclosed in the Australian court documents that the 67 people were "involved in some way in the development, installation, modification or approval of the switching or 2-mode software installed in ... [the] affected vehicles".

Of those, Justice Foster found, five had already been indicted in Germany with indictments of a further 27 likely. Others are formal suspects in ongoing investigations.

The judge found that, if those people were publicly named as among those Volkswagen believed were "involved in the development of the impugned software", lay judges in Germany or jury members in the US "would find it difficult to place that fact out of ... mind" when deciding their cases.

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The class actions alleged Volkswagen and its other brands misleadingly claimed their vehicles complied with emissions standards when some cars did not. Among other remedies, the class-action members wanted damages to make up for the drop in the value of their vehicles they say they have experienced as a result of the scandal.

Volkswagen and the other defendants denied those claims on various grounds, but settled the cases with a payout of $1400 a car.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and a group of other claimants also filed claims against the company.

Some of Volkswagen's most senior executives, including its chairman, chief executive and a former chief executive have been charged overseas in relation to the scandal and more than 400,000 people have signed up to a class action in Germany. The executives deny the charges against them and Volkswagen is defending the German claim.