Siemens Sets Aside $1.3Bn for Bribery Scandal, Hires Templars

Siemens AG, the world's largest engineering company has retained Templars, Nigeria’s full service law firm on legal issues arising from the company’s internal anti-corruption investigations as well as the applicability of compliance sanctions in its Nigerian subsidiary.
This is coming as the German firm set aside 1 billion euros about ($1.3 billion) to settle United States and German charges that it bribed officials in at least a dozen countries to win contracts.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the Munich-based Siemens provision, affected earnings for the year ended September 30 and is based on the ``status of ongoing discussions'' with authorities.
It would be recalled that a German court in Munich had named some past Nigerian Ministers of Communications as well as a Senator as having received bribes of about 10 million Euros from the German engineering conglomerate.
The court, in an October 4, 2007 ruling, listed Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohamed, Chief Cornelius Adebayo and Alhaji Haruna Elegí, as well as Senador Jibril Aminu among the alleged bribe recipients.
The court indicted Siemens for offering 77 bribes to cabinet ministers in Nigeria, Libya and Russia, to win lucrative contracts.
Following the indictment, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had, in December last year, suspended all contracts with Siemens while directing “all the relevant security agencies to thoroughly investigate the allegations and take appropriate legal actions against anybody implicated in corrupt practices.”
Indicted officials in Nigeria described the allegation as “strange and bewildering, malicious, libelous and wicked evil designs by political opponents”.
But the German maker of power plants and trains is seeking an accord with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department to end a two-year bribery investigation.
 The scandal erupted in November 2006 and led to probes in at least a dozen countries. The company found at least 1.3 billion euros in ``unclear payments'' made from 2000 to 2006, which may have been used to bribe customers for orders.
Last week, Wolfgang Ru., 69, and Heinz K.-von J., 58, two former Siemens AG managers told a Munich court that they helped hide illegal payments by establishing a secret accounting system and used sham contracts for payments into slush funds.
The confessions were the result of an agreement between the court, prosecutors and defense lawyers.
The men entered their confessions after Peter Noll, presiding Judge said that the court wouldn't give Ru more than a one- year suspended sentence and K.-von J. more than a two-year suspended term and a fine if they admitted guilt.
According to the indictment, the men helped make payments of 73 million euros into slush funds. Some of the money was used to bribe Nigerian government officials. Bribes were also paid in Russia, according to prosecutors.
With the new twist, Siemens will rely on Templars in Nigeria to resolve the two-year-old bribery scandal.
Templars prides itself in its sector strengths which cover diverse areas of the law including corporate and commercial, energy and natural resources, telecommunications, foreign investment, shipping and maritime, aviation, taxation, commercial litigation, alternative dispute resolution and project finance.