DaimlerChrysler AG disclosed in its latest financial filings that the US Justice Department is investigating whether the automaker paid bribes to foreign officials with the knowledge of its senior executives.
The criminal investigation is tied to an inquiry opened last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after an employee fired by the automaker said he was dismissed for complaining that the company was using secret bank accounts to bribe government officials.
DaimlerChrysler said it was cooperating with the investigations by "voluntarily sharing with the DOJ and the SEC information from its own internal investigation of payments from certain accounts" and complying with subpoenas from both federal agencies.
A DaimlerChrysler spokesman, Toni Melfi, confirmed that the investigation was linked to the SEC probe.
An internal investigation has identified accounts, transactions and payments that "are the subject of special scrutiny," but the company has not reached any definitive conclusions about whether they violate the law, DaimlerChrysler said in its interim report to the SEC on its financial performance in the second quarter of this year.
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign officials.
The inquiries come amid a transitional period for the world's fifth-largest automaker. DaimlerChrysler CEO Juergan Schrempp announced last week that he would step down at the end of the year and be succeeded by Dieter Zetsche, who has led the US-based Chrysler Group. Schrempp will leave two years before the end of his contract.
The disclosure in the SEC filing came about a week after 53-year-old Rudi Kornmayer, the managing director of a Mercedes plant in Nigeria, shot and killed himself in a park in Esslingen, Germany, on July 22. Prosecutors in Stuttgart, Germany, said he left a suicide note but that it provided no details about the bribery claims.
Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra declined to comment on Friday. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the Justice Department investigation on Friday.
David Bazzetta, a former employee in the automaker's corporate auditing department, claimed in a lawsuit filed last year in US District Court in Detroit that he learned during a corporate audit executive meeting in Stuttgart that payment of bribes was a common practice dating to before Daimler-Benz's 1998 merger with Chrysler Corp.
The suit was settled last month. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
The company noted that Bazzetta's whistleblower allegations were dismissed by a federal judge and the Labor Department. The company said the decisions validated "our position that his claim was without merit."
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS