Legal News

What?s the Cost of Corporate Bribery? Siemens Sets Aside $1 Billion

By Dan Slater

Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering company, is embroiled in what could be the largest corporate bribes-for-business case ever, with €1.3 billion in suspicious transactions flagged by Siemens since German police raided its offices in 2006.

In addition to Germany and the U.S., the company faces corruption investigations in Switzerland, Italy, Greece, China, Hungary, Russia, Norway, and Indonesia. Last year it paid a €201 million fine in German proceedings.

Now comes news that Siemens has reserved €1 billion in fiscal 2008 “in connection with the settlement being sought by the company and with authorities in Germany and the United States.” Here’s a report from the FCPA blog. The statement says: “This current estimate is based on the status of ongoing discussions being held between the company and authorities in Germany and the U.S. The company will make no further comments on the ongoing proceedings.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).