German car and truck maker Daimler AG was charged on Tuesday with violating US bribery laws by showering foreign officials with millions of dollars and gifts of luxury cars to win business deals.
Daimler plans to pay US$185 million to settle charges by the US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while its German and Russian units plan to plead guilty to the criminal charges, a source familiar with the case said.
US prosecutors accused the maker of Mercedes cars of engaging “in a long-standing practice of paying bribes” to secure deals in Russia, China, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, Iraq and at least 16 other countries between 1998 and early 2008, criminal information filed in a US court showed.
Examples in court documents included an armored car given to an official in Turkmenistan and another to a Liberian official.
The US Justice Department charged Daimler with conspiracy and falsifying books and records under the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal to pay bribes to obtain or keep business overseas.
Criminal informations are typically used in plea agreements with the US government.
Daimler owned US automaker Chrysler from 1998 to 2007. The SEC probe began in 2004 when an auditor complained he was fired for protesting secret bank accounts used to pay foreign officials.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the court papers. A Daimler spokeswoman also declined to comment until a hearing scheduled for next Thursday.
If the settlement proceeds, it would mark the latest in a string of recent agreements between the US and major companies to settle foreign bribery allegations. Siemens agreed in December to pay US$1.3 billion to end corruption probes in the US and Germany.
As part of the settlement, Daimler AG will not plead guilty or admit any wrongdoing in the Justice Department and SEC cases, said the source familiar with the case. The company will pay US$93.6 million to resolve the Justice Department probe and US$91.4 million for the SEC case, the source said.
Daimler and its China unit will enter a two-year deferred prosecution agreement, the source said.
The charges filed on Tuesday detailed transactions spanning from 1998 to early 2008 that involved hundreds of payments worth tens of millions of dollars to foreign officials in return for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The SEC opened its probe after David Bazzetta, an auditor at DaimlerChrysler Corp, filed a whistle-blower complaint.
Bazzetta alleged that he learned in a July 2001 corporate audit executive committee meeting in Stuttgart that business units “continued to maintain secret bank accounts to bribe foreign government officials,” though the company knew the practice violated US laws.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique