Three magistrates investigating the Siemens cash-for-contracts scandal have summoned 13 former executives of the German-based company to defend themselves on criminal charges, including the company’s former chairman, two former members of the central board and high-ranking executives from the company’s telecommunications department.
The suspects, whose names were not released, face charges of money laundering and bribe-taking in connection to a contract with Greece’s state telecoms operator, OTE. The suspects have been asked to present themselves to the magistrates by June or July at the latest otherwise warrants will be issued for their arrest.
The executives worked with the company, whose Greek branch is accused of bribing public officials and politicians in Greece to secure lucrative state contracts, between 1998 and 2004.
It’s unlikely, however, that German authorities would extradite the executives. In 2009, a German court ruled that the key suspect in the case, former Siemens Hellas CEO Michalis Christoforakos, could not be forced to face a Greek court. Christoforakos holds German and Greek passports and Germany rarely extradites its citizens to face trial abroad.
The judicial investigation into the allegations that Siemens bribed executives at OTE telecom to win a contract, worth almost half a billion euros, to digitize Greece’s phone network has almost been completed. The probe into Siemens’s role with regard to the C4I security system for the 2004 Athens Olympics is on hold as magistrates are waiting for a report from experts regarding what damage the Greek state suffered as part of the deal.
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