Munich - The first criminal trial in a mammoth bribery probe at German
engineering giant Siemens began in Munich yesterday, as the prosecutor warned
that it should send a signal to corporations that
corruption would not be tolerated.
In a case that may reveal the scale of a suspected bribery network already put
at more than € 1 billion (R12 billion) by Siemens, former division manager
Reinhardt Siekaczek is accused of building a system of slush funds and front
firms to hide illegal money transfers.
It follows a year and a half of investigations into suspected bribes that were
at first said to amount to just € 20 million
Senior public prosecutor Anton Winkler said: "We hope [the trial] will bring a
new awareness in corporate culture that bribery will not be tolerated ........
in Germany or abroad."
The affair has shaken Siemens, Europe's biggest engineering group, and led to
the resignations last year of chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld and chairman
Heinrich von Pierer.
Von Pierer will appear in the trial as a witness.
The company's conduct is also being investigated by the US department of justice
and the Securities and Exchange Commission, among other foreign authorities, and
could eventually lead to Siemens being banned from bidding
for certain US contracts.
Prosecutors are investigating almost 300 suspects in their probe, which has
generated 5 terabytes - or more than 5 million A4 sheets - of information.
Siekaczek (57), a grey-haired, bespectacled former manager at Siemens' former
telecoms equipment division, listened impassively as the charges were read out
at the start of the trial, after confirming his name and date of birth.
Siekaczek spent almost four decades working at Siemens and has
already admitted that he set up slush funds for bribes in
1999 or 2000.
He has said he was aware of bribery schemes earlier this
decade in more than a dozen countries.
He is not accused of personally enriching himself through the scams, but faces a
jail sentence of up to five years for each of the 58 cases of breach of trust of
which he is accused.
Sapa-AP reports that Siemens has acknowledged dubious payments of up to € 1,3
billion in the wider corruption case uncovered last year.
Siemens, which makes everything from wind turbines to trams, agreed in October
to pay a € 201 million fine to bring an end to some legal proceedings in Germany
related to the scandal. Its own investigation has found evidence of violations
across the company and in several countries.
In a summary of a Siemens-commissioned report released on April 29,
international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton said it had examined business
transactions that took place between 1999 and 2006 and found that "domestic as
well as foreign compliance regulations have been violated".
Several countries, including the US, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, have
launched investigations into suspected bribes to win contracts.
With acknowledgements to Georgina Prodhan
and Business
Report.
In the Arms Deal, Siemens supplied, inter alia, the
Platform Management Systems for the SA Navies frigates and submarines in
competition with CAE Systems of Canada.
It is not improbable that Siemens contributed hugely to the wonga given to the
South African recipients to win these deals by the German Strategic Alliance
consisting of, inter alia, the German Frigate Consortium, the German Submarine
Consortium, European Aeronautics Defence and Space company (EADS), MTU,
Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace, Eurocopter, BMW and Siemens.
These Europeans, especially the Germans, British and French, are very sick went
it comes to bribery in third world counties.
Now at least the British and Germans prosecuting authorities want to prosecute
their countries corporates for corruption - will the South African prosecuting
authorities want to do the same and/or be allowed to do the same by their
political minders.
And if anyone says that the South African prosecuting authorities do not have
political minders, I'll laugh and cry until the end of the end game.