In November 2006, 200 German policemen and prosecutors raided 30 offices and homes of Siemens managers to investigate allegations of embezzlement at Siemens’ fixed-line phone unit. In the wake of internal investigations started at the end of 2006, Siemens finally admitted to having identified dubious payments amounting to €1.3 billion from the years 1999 to 2006. As a result, Siemens replaced all but one of its managing board members. At the end of July 2008, a former sales manager at Siemens’ telecoms division, was convicted for his role in setting up the slush funds used to win contracts. The same day, the supervisory board approved the recommendations a well-known law firm to sue almost all executive committee members in charge between 2003 and 2006.
Learning Objective
To introduce students to the issues surrounding corruption in international business.
Keywords
Ethics, Corruption, International Business, Conglomerate
Settings
Europe, Germany
Siemens, Manufacturing, Electric and Electronic Equipment
2006-2008
Available Languages
English
Related material
Teaching note
IMD case studies are distributed through case clearing houses. In order to browse the collection and purchase copies please visit the links below.
Copyright Information
IMD retains all proprietary interests in its case studies and notes. Without prior written permission, IMD cases and notes may not be reproduced, used, translated, included in books or other publications, distributed in any form or by any means, stored in a database or in other retrieval systems. For additional copyright information related to case studies, please contact Case Services.
