Bribing business partners
November 2006:
A crackdown by the Munich States Attorney Office brought to light a
massive corruption scandal.
From 1999 till 2006,
• bribes amounting to some 1.3 billion Euros were paid in the form of provisions
from illegal slush funds.
• Around 300 employees of the company were responsible for bribes paid to
business partners, to lower level government offices and even to whole
governments (e.g. in 2004 in Greece in conjunction with the Olympic Games).
• Insiders party to such transactions were given generous payoffs to keep
things secret when they left the firm.
• The total damages for Siemens evoked by this greatest bribery scandal in
German history are estimated to be some 1.6 billion Euros.
Bribing employee representatives
• Money from slush funds was paid to spy out obstreperous trade union
representatives.
• For some 20 years, payoffs had been made to members of the AUB, an organization
of employer-friendly labour representatives opposed to the labour union
representatives. The payoffs took the form of direct bribes, luxury excursions etc.
• At the end of 2006, the former AUB chairman Wilhelm Schelsky was accused
of tax-dodging, breach of trust, and inordinately influencing elections
of worker representatives.
