NEW YORK — Three executive board members at German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG have been asked to vacate their positions effective Dec. 31 following a November audit of the troubled Steel Americas project, the company said late Wednesday.

The audit found that members of the executive board had based their decisions on the project "on a series of assumptions and key data which were either clearly too optimistic or later proved to be incorrect," ThyssenKrupp said.

"Further to the issues with Steel Americas, ThyssenKrupp is currently confronted with the disclosure of a series of corruption and cartel cases," the company added without disclosing further details.

The personnel committee of the company’s supervisory board said it will propose at a Dec. 10 meeting to release Olaf Berlien, Jürgen Claassen and Edwin Eichler from their positions on the board. Claassen asked to be released from his executive board duties on Dec. 1, according to the statement. All three have already agreed to step down, the company said.

For the nine months ended June 30, the company’s Steel Americas division—which is up for sale—reported a loss of $781 million (amm.com, Aug. 10).