Siemens stained by bribery allegations

SIEMENS IS DENYING that a culture of bribery and brown envelopes were commonplace in its business operations.

A report in today's Wall Street Journal said that it had seen detailed witness statements which show bribes were common.

The prosecutions star witnes in an investigation is an individual called Michael Kutschenreuter, who alleges that Siemens paid bribes to individuals and companies in Saudi Arabia to win contracts for kit.

But Siemens claims that payments it made were not part of a complex slush fund which saw payments made to other countries including Argentina, Russia and Slovakia. Two other witnesses have also made statements to German police alleging that bribes were part of Siemens' culture. µ

L'INQ
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