Via the New York Times:

Andreas Kley, a former finance chief at Siemens’s power-generation unit, and Horst Vigener, a consultant — were convicted of paying about 6 million euros in bribes from 1999 to 2002 to help Siemens win gas-turbine supply contracts with Enel, an Italian energy company. The contracts were valued at approximately 450 million euros ($609 million).

Along with the two convictions, Siemens itself has been ordered to pay $50 million in fines. Siemens has cried foul and has stated their plans to appeal the rulings.

A seeming multitude of much more sprawling investigations are continuing into the company's business practices and no one is seeing bottom just yet.

-- MDT

Labels: Andreas Kley, bribery, Horst Vigener, Siemens

"I have the impression that we are looking into a bottomless pit."
-- Siemens board member Berthold Huber to Der Spiegel

Siemens insiders not showing a lot of optimism these days. While the company's stock price had remained relatively stable throughout the bribery scandal that has subsumed Siemens over the last few months, the bad news just keeps coming and coming.

In keeping with that theme, two former employees from Siemens power generation division, Andreas Kley and Horst Vigener were recently convicted on bribery-related charges by a German court. These two names popped up back in mid-March, when they copped to bribery allegations. Then and now Kley and Vigener have denied broader company involvement and have received suspended sentences. Siemens plans to appeal the conviction.

-- MDT

Labels: Andreas Kley, bribery, Horst Vigener, Siemens

Via the FT's Alphaville...but if you want the full story, you'll have to subscribe.

Also, in case you missed it, as I did, two Siemens managers have admitted to making payments - not bribes, mind you (apparently there is a distinction in the original German).

Horst Vigener and Andreas Kley, the managers in question, have pointed out, in their defense, that German law did not at the time the payments took place, only prohibited the bribing of public officials. The Italian utility, whose executives received their payments, had been thoroughly privatized.

Umm...touche...

Still, the two men have been charged with Breach of Trust, which indicates the misuse of institutional funds, if not personal enrichment and the Siemens trial has followed their web of bribes around the world - from Italy to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Monaco.

For further details on Vigener and Kley and the ongoing consequences for Siemens, check out this article from the IHT.

In semi-related news, senior VP and chief financial officer Eric Yu of former Siemens partner, BenQ has been detained by authorities regarding insider trading allegations. Yu and 13 other BenQ execs are thought to have been involved in the scheme. More on the BenQ angle, here.

--MDT

Labels: Andreas Kley, BenQ, bribery, Horst Vigener, Siemens