MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Siemens manager charged for allegedly bribing Argentine officials with 27 million USD
A former management board member of Germany’s Siemens AG has been charged with breach of trust for alleged bribery payments made to win a project in Argentina, the Munich State Prosecutors office said this week. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules*rolls eyes* I would love to know who received the bribes.
Jun 15th, 2011 - 11:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The actual members of the Kirchner government who received these bribes has yet to be proven. And, if the typical speed of Argentina justice prevails, nobody in Argentina will ever be convicted.
Jun 16th, 2011 - 05:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0Ain't it just typical,
Jun 16th, 2011 - 11:24 am - Link - Report abuse 0charge the company with bribery,
rather than charge the Argentinian government officials and middlemen with extortion - those state-hidden individuals who fix and arrange 'The Cost Of Doing Business'.
@GeoffWard
Jun 16th, 2011 - 12:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You have not idea how the business world works. Have you?
None in any govt. in the world ask you for bribes or extorts you to pay bribes. The simple reason is that they are so scared to be framed
BTW these bribes were made in the times of De La Rua presidency and denounced in USA by own Siemens stuff when Siemens was prosecuted to pay bribes in US.
The bribery stuff is a common practice made by multinationals from all over the world and especially from Europe to get contracts from govt. around the world. The system is so well used that they put on their balance sheets the amount of the bribes as marginal cost. Even the tax revenue of their respective countries knows that and turns blind eyes.
Siemens will be prosecuted by Greece for bribing
http://www.financenews.co.uk/fnews/siemens-will-be-prosecuted-by-greece-for-bribing-officials/
“In the most highly publicized and costly prosecution to date, Siemens AG paid $800 million in civil and criminal fines to the DOJ and SEC for corrupt payments occurring around the world. Siemens made 4,238 separate bribes totaling approximately $1.4 billion to numerous foreign officials to gain contract work. Siemens’ bribes included payments on transactions to design and build metro transit lines in Venezuela, metro trains and signaling devices in China, power plants in Israel, high voltage transmission lines in China, traffic control systems in Russia, refineries in Mexico, and national identity cards in Argentina (to name a few). The company even had “cash desks” containing thousands of U.S. dollars which could be conveniently stuffed in a suitcase and carried to a corrupt foreign official.[2] For Siemens, “bribery was nothing less than standard operating procedure.”
http://www.financenews.co.uk/fnews/siemens-will-be-prosecuted-by-greece-for-bribing-officials/
Now dear GeoffWard do you have any office of Siemens or any other multinational in UK?
If so your government officials all have nice accounts with dirty money in Zurich.
Well come to reality.
: )
This article stated “It said the executive and a middleman of the Argentine government representative had a personal meeting that took place in Munich in November 2003 and both then had agreed for a 4.7 million USD payment to be covered by false contracts.” I do not remember that De La Rua was in office in November 2003.
Jun 16th, 2011 - 02:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nico, @4:
Jun 16th, 2011 - 04:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Seimens - no idea;
but I was not a million miles away from the Saudi Arms Deals scandal in the Thatcher era involving British Aerospace.
The biggest corrupt transaction in history, some would say.
If you really want to dip into the world of arms, terrorism, corruption, duplicity, and cover-up I can recommend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Yamamah_arms_deal.
There are many more vicious articles than this damning Wikipedia source, but it gives a good overview.
The fitments of the 'breakaway rooms' used for relaxing in one of the negotiating centre used for the 'biggest arms deal in history' made it abundantly clear to me that the process involved more than just money on the table and under the table.
Or maybe I just have a vivid imagination and a dicky memory.
@4 @ 6
Jun 16th, 2011 - 08:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I will give you both another example , during GW's presidency and VP Cheney, all the contracts to support the troops went to Halliburton .... so Cheney (ex CEO) of Halliburton .... do you follow?
In one of his tax returns , he reported 75 M, due to shares in the company ... do you follow ? Conflict of interest anyone?
as technically ,the bribe is called as tax exempted percentage taking !
Jun 16th, 2011 - 08:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@jerry
Jun 17th, 2011 - 09:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0The article is wrong or intentional misleading.
Correction
“Siemens admits corruption with former Argentine leaders”
“Siemens' local chief Enrique Antonio Genzone wrote to Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido explaining that the bribes involved a contract to make Argentine national identity cards signed by former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and rescinded by his successor Fernando de la Rua (1999-2001), the Telam news agency said.”
“Siemens' ID contracts have been under investigation by a federal judge since 2004. Menem and his former interior minister Carlos Corach and immigration director Hugo Franco are bribe suspects in the probe.”
Fernando De La Rua was suspected to pay bribes to pass a bill when he was president.
That was my mistake.
@GeoffWard
Yes I was aware of that and the son of Thatcher was also in jail in some country in Africa for plotting, arm dealing and intent to coup I think was in Guinea or sort of that.
Jail for all corrupts public servants and private companies : )
Yes, Nico,
Jun 17th, 2011 - 02:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0but watch out for circumvention through “Plausible Deniability”.
Senior officials, Ministers, Senators, Presidents and PMs are *really* good at creating Chinese Walls to protect themselves from the illegal and corrupt actions of those doing their bidding.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!