Siemens scandal
November 15, 2010
Greek prosecutors are poised to issue an international arrest warrant for a former Siemens executive involved in a bribery scandal.
Volker Jung is suspected of skipping bail and fleeing the country. The 71 year-old Jung did not report to police at the start of November as he was required to under bail conditions in effect since 2008.
Jung allegedly oversaw a slush fund used by Siemens to bribe Greek politicians into securing telecommunications contracts.
The German national, who lived on the Greek Aegean island of Paros, would be the third Siemens executive to have fled the country in the ongoing investigation into the firm's business practices.
An old scandal
Another high-ranking Siemens executive, Michalis Christoforakos, was arrested in Germany in June 2009 after fleeing Greece. Germany refused to extradite him.
Christos Karavelas, a former financial manager, fled Greece a month later and remains at large.
In 2008, the Munich-based engineering giant agreed to pay one of the largest corporate corruption fines in recent history, paying totalling about one billion euros, ($1.23 billion) to US and German authorities after widespreade corruption was brought to light.
Author: Sarah Harman (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Chuck Penfold