Published: Dec. 13, 2011 at 1:56 PM
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice said six former Siemens AG executives have been charged with bribing Argentine officials to land a government contract.
The department also charged two middlemen with similar charges that amount to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The charges include money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud.
The contract in question was a $1 billion deal to produce national identity cards, the department said Tuesday.
"Today's indictment alleges a shocking level of deception and corruption," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a statement.
"The indictment charges Siemens executives, along with agents and conduits for the company, with committing to pay more than $100 million in bribes to high-level Argentine officials to win a $1 billion contract.
"Business should be won or lost on the merits of a company's products and services, not the amount of bribes paid to government officials."
The department alleges the scheme was "decades-long" and involved concealing payments, which involved multimillion-dollar fund transfers on numerous occasions.
The company has already settled its case with the Justice Department. The focus on executives involved in the scheme comes on the heels of criticism of judicial settlements that allow executives off the hook while the company admits no wrongdoing.
In many of those cases, the cost of fines are passed on to shareholders, who had nothing to do with the crime at all.
The department's case was announced along with "a parallel civil action" by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which also filed charges Tuesday.
The defendants in the case include Uriel Sharef, a former member of the central executive committee of Siemens AG; Herbert Steffen, a former chief executive officer of Siemens Argentina; Andres Truppel, a former chief financial officer of Siemens Argentina; and Ulrich Bock, Stephan Signer and Eberhard Reichert, former senior executives of Siemens Business Services.
Charges were also filed against Carlos Sergi and Miguel Czysch, described as "intermediaries and agents of Siemens in the bribe scheme."
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