Posted on 12/15/2008 1:29:03 PM PST by BGHater
FRANKFURT, Germany – Siemens AG — rocked by a series of corruption cases that has cost the company both prestige and money — agreed Monday to pay more than $1 billion in fines in Germany and the U.S. as it moved a step forward in closing a dark chapter in its history.
Munich-based Siemens agreed to pay more than $800 million in fines to settle long-standing corruption charges in the United States and another 395 million euros ($533.6 million) to European authorities. The announcements of the amounts of both fines came Monday.
Siemens, which makes products ranging from wind turbines to trams, has been embroiled in a far-reaching corruption scandal and has acknowledged making dubious payments to secure business. An investigation commissioned by Siemens found evidence of violations across the company, and in several countries.
In July, Siemens said it planned to sue two former chief executives and nine other former executives for alleged supervisory failings in the corruption scandal, which has cost the company many millions in fines and damaged its reputation.
In Washington on Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon accepted guilty pleas from lawyers for the conglomerate — Germany's biggest engineering company — in federal court in Washington D.C.
Under the terms in the U.S., Siemens and three of its international subsidiaries will pay approximately $450 million to the U.S. Justice Department to settle charges of making bribes and trying to falsify corporate books from 2001 to 2007. It will pay another $350 million to settle charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Germany's DAX.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Leon said he was "more than satisfied" with the plea agreement."
But but but, Jim Lehrer thinks there is nothing wrong with pay to play.
Yeah, who were the politicians being paid off, and why aren’t they being prosecuted?
>Yeah, who were the politicians being paid off, and why aren’t they being prosecuted?
Because they were VICTIMS. [/cynic]
Until relatively recently, bribes paid by German and French companies were considered “normal business expenses” and were accounted for just like the electric bill or buying a new delivery truck.
Or, at least that’s what I heard when working in Europe in the 1980’s. The story was that in the Middle East, if one didn’t pay off the right people, you would never get any business and if you did get a contract, you had to make payments to the right folks to get import permits, work permits, etc.
The law changed when the EU brought in anti-bribery rules 10 or 15 years ago, but until then, no problem. Until that time, the European companies thought the US companies that had to comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act were foolish and were ignoring how the world really worked, thus leaving more business for the sophisticated European companies to pick up.
However, the same “pay to play” culture still exists in the Middle East, so I assume the same payments continue, but layered through consultants, foreign subsidiaries and similar strategies so the European end of the businesses can say that they have not made illegal payments, whilst still doing what it takes to get the business and meet the contract obligations.
Jack
Seems like the US is the only country that doesn’t consider bribery a normal business practice, and even the US seems pretty selective about what they call bribery. Take Illinois politics, for example.
Enough money and you can buy anything.
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