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Deutsche Welle

Investigators examining the Siemens books say they have found dubious payments dating back to the early 1990s totaling more than a billion euros ($1.4 billion), during their probe of the traditional German industrial concern, a newspaper reported Monday.

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The Munich-based daily Süddeutsche Zeitung said US lawyers and auditors had uncovered the payments, which relate to the company's communications and power-generation divisions.

Greater sums than expected

Internal auditors have been probing the company since December as part of a corruption affair in which payments were made in order to secure contracts.

The new information indicated that the "questionable payments" totaled three times more than previously thought, the Südeutsche reported.

It quoted top managers as saying "huge amounts" were involved, and one manager referred to a "shocking sum."

Some 900 million euros were linked to the communications division, as opposed to the 420 million acknowledged earlier by Siemens, the paper said.

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Siemens refuses comment

The transactions dated back to the beginning of the 1990s, the report claimed. A Siemens spokesperson refused to comment on the reports.

"Beyond the quarterly report, we do not comment on ongoing internal investigations," he told the Associated Press.

Illicit payments at the power generation division came to 250 million to 300 million euros. These flowed from the division into diverse international accounts, the report said. The activity also went back to the 1990s.

Two former Siemens managers in the power-generation division received suspended sentences from a German court in May related to the payment of more than 6 million euros in bribes to two managers of the Italian energy concern Enel with the aim of securing contracts for Siemens gas turbines.