Munich - In the first of a series of verdicts on bribery at Siemens, a Munich court handed a suspended two-year jail term and fine Monday to a former executive at the German electronics and engineering group. Reinhard S, who was a senior figure in Siemens' ICN division, which builds fixed-line telephone exchanges, was convicted of 49 counts of being a party to misappropriation of corporate funds.
The case of S and others revealed that some Siemens divisions were using kickbacks to officials and purchasing executives in Greece, Italy and other nations to win major contracts. Slush funds hidden in the Siemens accounts were used as a conduit for the bribery.
S, 57, admitted in court that he helped create the slush funds and front companies, which were the mechanism used to pay "consultancy" fees to corrupt foreign officials who were open to bribery.
In reality, the recipients did not provide any consulting time to the front companies, but simply influenced buying decisions to favour Siemens. S was not charged with paying the actual bribes.
Presiding judge Peter Noll handed him a fine of 108,000 euros (169,000 dollars).
