DailyTech - Siemens Board Member Arrested On Bribery Charges

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IT Siemens Board Member Arrested On Bribery Charges
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - March 31, 2007 1:31 AM

6 comment(s) - last by Rollomite.. on Apr 2 at 1:16 PM

German investigators arrested employees allegedly connected to shady practices between Siemens and a union group

Johannes Feldmayer, a top-ranking official at Siemens, was arrested in Germany due to an investigation into suspected bribery. The police detained him during an investigation into payments Siemens made to the head of the AUB labor organization, authorities said. Siemens said the arrest of the head of its IT services business will not affect operations of the IT unit in the future.

German investigators are looking into whether or not illegal payments were made after a contract signing between Siemens and the head of the workers' organization in 2001. Prosecutors discovered that Siemens paid the funds from 2001 to 2005 without receiving any type of services in return from the labor organization.

Feldmayer was questioned earlier because of a consulting contract that was signed with Wilhelm Schelsky, the current head of the Association of Independent Employees. Authorities arrested Schelsky last month.

On Wednesday, he asked to be "temporarily relieved of his obligations and business duties on account of his current personal situation," Siemens said in a statement.

Police and investigators raided 30 locations related to the investigation in November 2006, with five Siemens employees arrested for charges ranging from embezzlement to bribery. A number of Siemens executives are still under investigation into alleged involvement.

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By StevoLincolnite on 3/31/2007 10:40:48 AM , Rating: 3

It would be nice to know how much money has been embezzled or given away etc, I would imagine it would have been several millions. I like siemens as a company, When I was young (15ish) my first phone was a siemens phone, And it was a brick! Almost indestructible! (Siemens A20) And my favorite joke with the phone - "Hey how ya going? I have siemen on my ear."
Phones aren't made like the old ones, The old ones were incredibly solid.

RE: .

By Chillin1248 on 3/31/2007 11:58:50 AM , Rating: 2

I can't agree with you more.

I remember when I had a Motorola V60i, now that phone (at least to me) was indesctructible. Dropped it in water, threw it across the room, etc. Always kept on working, even when the antenna fell off. Had a similar experience with a Nokia 1100 except for worse build quality.

Then I remember my parents getting a new phone with a camera, bluetooth and the works. That thing fell to the floor and it was gone; after it ran out of battery faster than I can speak this whole sentence.

These days I only purchase/rent phones without cameras, radios, bluetooth, wifi and usually color screens. I have never had a plain phone which just made phone calls break on me or run out of battery on me when I needed it most.

-------
Chillin

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RE: .

By Rollomite on 4/2/2007 1:16:29 PM , Rating: 2

Well with that outlook, maybe you should invest in an automobile without all those pesky options like heat, a/c, power steering, and airbags. I mean after all, I bet those cars they drove in the Flintstones were super reliable, and the battery never died.

Rollo

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Typo and...

By HaZaRd2K6 on 3/31/2007 1:10:35 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
On Wednesday, he asked to be "temporarily of his obligations and business duties on account of his current personal situation," Siemens said in a statement.

Missing a word in there?

On a more serious note, though, I know that Siemens is now taking precautions so that it will be impossible to just "misplace" important meeting notes, etc. All meeting minutiae will be archived for an indefinite amount of time (as opposed to just whenever the person holding the notes decided it was time to toss them out), and any and all laptop computers/Blackberries also have to be archived. Mainly so nobody can, say, take home a computer with incriminating evidence, say they gave it back and blame it on the register.