Siemens' Global Corruption Problems Will Worsen

Perhaps the biggest, although not yet the loudest, international corruption story involves Siemens AG, the German electronics and electrical engineering giant. Siemens says it has identified "a multitude of payments made in connection with [consulting agreements] for which we have not yet been able either to establish a valid business purpose or to clearly identify the recipient. These payments raise concerns in particular under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the United States, anti-corruption legislation in Germany and similar legislation in other countries." Some reports put the level of potentially corrupt payments at a staggering half a billion dollars.

The press, led by the Wall Street Journal, is also reporting that Siemens' managers in many countries are stonewalling the internal investigation. That, in turn, may have pushed the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin working on a deal with German prosecutors to share information and possibly resources in their respective investigations.

With Siemens' own managers now going silent, the DOJ and SEC face tough challenges collecting evidence abroad and compelling non-residents to appear in American courts, either as witnesses or defendants. Meanwhile, the tension among Siemens' management-level employees must be enormous. If they voluntarily give evidence, they could end up being prosecuted. If they refuse to give evidence, they could end up being fired and still be prosecuted. And unless the internal investigation gets back on track, Siemens itself may lose the opportunity to work out a favorable disposition of the case with U.S. and other prosecutors.

Siemens AG's ADRs trade on the NYSE under the symbol SI.

View A Recent Press Report Here.

View Siemens' Recent SEC Disclosure Here.