A former executive at MAN SE's turbo unit has been charged with bribing Kazakh officials with more than 9 million euros ($13.2 million) to win orders linked to the country's Central Asia Center gas pipeline, a Munich court said.
The man, identified only as Heinz Juergen M., paid the money to get access to the Kazakhstan market, court spokeswoman Margaret Noetzel said in an e-mailed statement today. MAN won gas turbine compressor orders and paid the bribes between October 2005 and May 2008.
"The people involved knew that there were other suppliers for gas turbine compressors," said Noetzel. "They knew that the state-owned Kazakh companies acted illicitly when deciding on the orders by taking, at least in part, the bribes into account."
MAN SE, Europe's third-largest truckmaker, said yesterday it agreed to pay 150.6 million euros in fines to resolve an investigation into alleged bribes paid by its truck and turbo units. The company, 29.9 percent owned by Volkswagen AG, has been embroiled in a bribery probe since May when investigators raided company sites and private homes. More than 100 suspects are being investigated over possible illegal conduct from 2002 to 2009.
Heinz Juergen M. was the unit's chief executive from 2002 to 2007, according to the court statement. MAN SE's turbo unit chief executive at that time was Juergen Maus, who retired in 2007. A number for Maus couldn't be found in the public telephone directory. A person at MAN Turbo's central switchboard yesterday said Maus had left the company and wasn't available for comment.
MAN SE said in a separate statement today that its internal investigation found 51.6 million euros of "suspect" payments. The investigators handed 80 cases of possible bribery to prosecutors. Twenty people were fired.
The company also reached an agreement with German tax authorities resulting in an additional tax payment of about 20 million euros, MAN said.
Bloomberg
