Greek Investment Minister, Harris Pamboukis, said that the government would seek damages from Siemens AG, after its involvement in a bribes scandal, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Pamboukis described the events surrounding Siemens as an “international scandal” and said that “the world has to learn the truth.”
Late Monday, Pamboukis sent a letter to Siemens’ Greek subsidiary asking for its help in uncovering the truth surrounding the bribes, but also warning of plans to seek damages.
Sources note that “the letter was sent yesterday and asks, on the one hand, for help in revealing the truth and, on the other, says that Greece will seek some kind of restitution for damages the country has suffered,” according to Dow Jones Newswires. “We are now waiting for a response from Siemens.”
A special parliamentary probe released a 2,000 page report which alleges that Siemens paid millions of euros in bribes to various Greek governments to secure government contracts during the period from the late 1990’s up to 2009.
According to the report, which comes after a year long investigation, Greek taxpayers suffered damages on the order of EUR2 billion by paying too much for those contracts.
However, the parliamentary committee’s report has also been sharply criticized in the Greek media and by opposition politicians for failing to uncover details of who received the bribes amid widespread indications that the bribes were paid directly into the coffers of Greece’s two major political parties, says the news agency.
Siemens rejected the allegations in a statement released in Munich.
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