'Siemens bribed Greek officials for Olympics contract'
German engineering giant Siemens reportedly paid bribes to officials in the Greek interior and defence ministries linked to a contract it won for the Athens Olympics.
By Agencies |
BERLIN: German engineering giant Siemens reportedly paid bribes to officials in the Greek interior and defence ministries linked to a contract it won for the Athens Olympics.
A report in the weekly Der Speigel magazine said that a manager of the group, which is currently being probed for corruption, had told prosecutors in Munich that a former Siemens official in Greece had received up to 10% of the company’s revenue in that country to use for bribes.
Prosecutors in the Siemens probe are investigating the suspected existence of overseas slush funds containing about e200 million ($260 million), allegedly used to pay bribes to obtain big contracts.
A total of seven current and former Siemens employees have so far been arrested in the investigation and six of them are still in custody. The Siemens contract for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 involved a security system.
Slush funds were reportedly held in Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein and beneficiaries allegedly included the regime of late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha.
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