Infineon Bosses Under Investigation
July 16, 2005
Around 100 public prosecutors, police officers and tax investigators raided Infineon's Munich headquarters, as well as 14 offices and private homes in Germany and Switzerland, senior public prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld told news agency dpa on Saturday.
A spokesman from Infineon also confirmed Saturday that people outside the company as well as Infineon employees were under investigation.
The statements came after next week's editions of Der Spiegel and Focus magazines reported that several Infineon managers were being investigated for corruption, breaches of trust and tax fraud.
Three main suspects
According to Schmidt-Sommerfeld, the investigations are focused on three key suspects -- Infineon director Andreas von Zitzewitz, former Infineon manager Harald Eggers, who now heads the Swiss technology firm Unaxis, and the operator of Switzerland's BF Consulting, Udo Schneider.
Focus magazine reported that Zitzewitz was suspected of having received 259,000 euros ($312,000) from Schneider in return for business favors. Eggers is suspected of having been involved in similar bribery contracts, the magazine reported.
The investigation was prompted by a statement made by Schneider before Munich's regional court in the course of a law suit between BF Consulting and Infineon., in which the BF Consulting director referred to payments of 300,000 euros to Zitzewitz.
Infineon is Europe's second largest computer chip manufacturer.