Siemens to sue former execs?

Munich-based Siemens AG told a group of former directors that it would initiate legal action against them unless they agreed to pay the company by mid-November.

“As long as we have reached no agreement by that time, the company will file suit,” read a company statement on Wednesday.

The managers being put under pressure include former Siemens CEOs Heinrich von Pierer and Klaus Kleinfeld, as well as onetime board members Heinz-Joachim Neubuerger, Juergen Radomski, Johannes Feldmayer, Uriel Sharef, and Thomas Ganswindt.

All were caught up in the bribery scandal that has crippled the company since 2006.

Siemens was investigated for paying 1.3 billion euros in kickbacks between 2003 and 2006 to potential buyers in 12 countries, including Italy, Greece, Russia and Nigeria. In Germany and in the United States, the company was found guilty of corruption and ordered to pay combined fines of just over a billion euros.

Others back down

Another three former Siemens managers, Klaus Wucherer, Edward Krubasik, and Rudi Lamprecht, agreed last month to pay 500,000 euros each as a settlement for their roles in failing to stop the “unclear payments.”

Siemens hopes to receive a much larger sum from von Pierer, its CEO from 1992 until 2005. The company has asked him to pay 6 million euros in damages.

Von Pierer has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and refused to comment on whether he would consider settling with Siemens, citing pending negotiations, as well as an ongoing investigation into his alleged administrative offenses by Munich prosecutors.

Siemens hopes to settle the matter of payments by mid-November so as to meet a deadline for printing and mailing annual reports ahead of the company's annual meeting on January 26.

mrh/dpa/AFP/AP
Editor: Michael Lawton