Siemens AG top exec admits heading a department in charge of bribery and corruption
Munich – A former Siemens AG executive Reinhard Siekaczek, has confessed to being in-charge of a departmental unit within the engineering firm with the sole purpose of providing bribes to government officials in several countries including Nigeria, to secure lucrative contracts. Mr. Siekaczek made the confession at a Munich court hearing the corruption charge brought against the company by the government. The court had last October, fined Siemens €1 million, the maximum fine for bribes paid by the communications unit in 77 cases between 2001 and 2004 to government officials in Nigeria, Libya and Russia. The Nigerian government, last December, canceled a N128.4 million (about $1.1 million) contract with Siemens for the supply of circuit breakers and other power generation accessories, and suspended dealings with the German telecoms firm pending an investigation into the bribery allegations. Four former ministers of communications, a senator, some officials in the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and the Nigeria Immigrations Service (NIS) were indicted by the Munich court last year for $10 million bribe in the on-going probe of Siemens. Image source: huffingtonpost.com. > Continue.
News selected by Covalence | Country:
