OT: Siemens Busted 1.3 Billion USD in Fines

[Ken M]

This whole corruption issue has been bubbling under in Siemens for a year or two now. They've done pretty well to keep it so quiet, and I think some of that is due to their open attitude, saying to the authorities "OK, we're guilty, let's clear this up". They sacked the CEO (Kleinfeld) who was in charge at the time the issue emerged, although the actual bribes in question appear to have been on the previous CEO's watch. The new guy they appointed (Loescher) appears to want Siemens to be seen as whiter than white in future. I know a couple of people who work for Siemens and their version of this is that it kicked off when an internal auditor discovered something strange. They then reported themselves to the local feds in Germany and before they knew it everything had blown up. They blew the whistle on themselves but I don't think they ever thought it was on the scale it turned out to be. According to my contacts, just about everyone in Siemens worldwide (~400,000?) has had to undergo pretty thorough retraining to prove they're taking the business ethics and compliance seriously.