Former top management at German engineering group Siemens turned a deaf ear to repeated warnings about suspicious payments, its former head of compliance told a court in Munich today.
Albrecht Schaefer, who was anti-corruption manager at Siemens from 2004 to 2006, said he repeatedly alerted ex-finance chief Heinz-Joachim Neubuerger, the then head of personnel Juergen Radomski, and former divisional manager Thomas Ganswindt about peculiar procedures and dubious accounts.
The investigation into whether Siemens paid out cash to win work, one of the biggest bribery probes in German corporate history, has forced the departure of its chairman, Heinrich von Pierer, and chief executive.
Mr Schaefer, who was called as a witness at the trial against a former Siemens manager, also said he had informed top management about pending bribery investigations in Liechtenstein and Switzerland and warned that Siemens' offices could be searched as a result.
However, management did not take action, Mr Schaefer said, adding: "It was said clearly: There has been criminal wrongdoing here."
Mr Neubuerger's lawyer was not immediately available for comment, and Mr Radomski's lawyer could not be reached. Mr Ganswindt's attorney said Mr Schaefer's claims were new to him and would need to be reviewed.
Siemens fired Mr Schaefer in November 2006 for failing to inform the executive and supervisory board sufficiently about corruption. He is now suing the group for unfair dismissal.
He is one of the last witnesses to testify at the trial of Reinhard Siekaczek, who is accused of extending a system of funds for bribes to win contracts and setting up a network of front firms to transfer cash.
Mr Siekaczek, a 57-year-old former sales manager at Siemens's telecoms equipment division, is defending himself on charges of breach of trust and says he built the slush-fund network under orders.
Siemens's own and other investigations into a suspected bribery system at first centred on its telecoms businesses - now mostly sold - before spreading to other divisions such as power and transport.
Siemens, which makes a wide range of products from medical scanners and trains to wind turbines and light bulbs, is being investigated on allegations that it bribed customers to win contracts.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is also probing the matter. The company could face fines or US sanctions that would exclude it from bidding for public contracts.
Reuters