Munich - German public prosecutors said Friday they had called off a criminal inquiry against a former chief executive of Siemens, the electrical and engineering group struggling to shake off a history of winning contracts by kickbacks. The prosecutors in Munich said there was no adequate evidence that Heinrich von Pierer, formerly one of the Germany's most powerful executives and an adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel, had committed any crime.
But a formal inquiry was being opened into whether he and other chief officers had committed any misdemeanour, which is a minor offence punishable by a fine, by failing in their duty to supervise the company's affairs.
German law required executives to put "practicable organizational measures" in place to prevent crime, they added.
Pierer, 67, left Siemens after revelations that sales executives used slush funds to bribe officials in Greece, Italy and other nations to purchase Siemens telecommunications gear or machinery.
Leaked allegations in recent weeks had suggested Pierer may have been warned about the irregularities at the time.
The decision in Munich was the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry that followed an interview by prosecutors with Pierer on April 18. Prosecutors said they would not disclose any other details.
The new chief executive of Siemens, Peter Loescher, said in a news interview released Friday that the company had set up a system of checks to prevent any repeats and to punish any offenders.
He told the news magazine Focus, "One can never rule out individual crookedness, But we have a system in place that makes broad-based misdeeds on the past scale impossible in the future."
