Siemens board member resigns amid ongoing corruption probe

Siemens board member resigns amid ongoing corruption probe
AFP - Wednesday, April 23 06:32 pm

BERLIN (AFP) - Siemens said Wednesday that Erich Reinhardt, head of its healthcare sector, would resign on April 30, amid a vast corruption scandal at the German engineering group.

Reinhardt, 61, and a board member since 2001, "is responding to the new findings of Debevoise and Plimpton regarding compliance cases in the former Siemens Medical Solutions Group," a statement said.

"Based on current information, Reinhardt was not personally involved" in any wrongdoing, it said, referring to an audit, and he would continue as an advisor to the company.

He is to be succeeded by Jim Reid-Anderson, previously chief executive of the sector's diagnostics division.

Siemens has struggled with revelations that it created a slush fund to pay bribes to obtain foreign contracts and that it built up a small trade union to try to offset the power of Germany's large IG Metall union.

The group has acknowledged the existence of funds worth 1.3 billion euros (2.1 billion dollars) and agreed in October to pay a fine of 201 million euros to put an end to some German legal proceedings.

Former company directors could still face charges, however, and Siemens has not ruled out filing compensation claims itself if their responsibility is proven.

Siemens is also the subject of a potentially damaging probe by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by virtue of the fact that shares in the company are listed in the United States.