Siemens

In examining the scandal, Bharath Krishna under Rajjiv Fernando’s direction at ICMR Center for Management Research used over 50 widely known and highly credible sources. He explains how court cases were brought against numerous people and companies involved in the different scandals and they were either convicted or admitted their guilt. In May of 2007 two former managers at Siemens AG were convicted by German courts for “diverting the company’s money to bribe employees of Enel SpA, an Italian company”. These two admitted their guilt but claimed they did nothing wrong because they did not take the money for themselves and it was considered standard business practice in the countries abroad where they routinely practiced these types of techniques in contract negotiation.

The company admitted certain company employees were engaged in fraudulent behavior and began estimating damages. A former board member was arrested.

IG Metall also accused them of attempted bribery of a small union to get support for their policies in February of 2007.

According to the state department,

“The U.S. has undertaken a multifaceted effort to combat bribery in international business transactions because it distorts national economies, particularly those of developing countries, by diverting scarce resources; undermines the creation and legitimacy of democratically accountable institutions; and unfairly disadvantages companies which, because of legal constraints or corporate practice, refuse to pay bribes. While anti-bribery initiatives are underway in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Organizations of American States (OAS) and international financial institutions, the challenge is to secure full implementation of these core initiatives and devise an action place for expanding these initiatives.

The U.S. State Department is playing a leading role in a broad inter-agency effort to eliminate bribery in international business...