Nuremberg, Germany - A former top Siemens executive and a former pro-business union leader were sentenced to jail Monday as part of a scandal over illicit payments totalling more than 30 million euros (38 million dollars). A court in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg sentenced former Siemens management board member Johannes Feldmayer to a suspended two-year sentence, while Wilhelm Schelsky, the former head of the AUB Association of Independent Employees, received a four-and-year prison term.
Prosecutors had been seeking much tougher sentences for both men who had been on trial over illicit Siemens funds which had been paid to AUB between 2001 and 2006.
The court decision comes in the wake of a wider two-year-long corruption-and-kickbacks scandal at Siemens that has rocked the 160-year-old company.
The allegations of corruption have already led to several resignations among top management, including former chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld.
