German electronics giant has agreed to pay the Israeli government a NIS 160 million penalty for bribing senior Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) executives to rig a tender for turbines more than ten years ago. Siemens will also appoint an external inspector for supervision over their activities in Israel.
Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv District Attorney has filed indictments for bribery and money laundering against 6 senior IEC executives for their role in the affair. They are: former senior deputy director general David Cohn, former senior deputy CEO Jacob Hain, former engineering and planning department deputy director Haim Bar-Ner, planning and development department deputy director David Elmakis, former engineering and planning department director Yona Sweater, and former planning department departmental head Zvi Eyal. They are suspected of taking bribes amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars that were transferred to accounts in Swiss banks or smuggled abroad in cash in suitcases.
Advs. Israel Leshem, Nadav Weisman and Adi Fremder of Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal, which represents Siemens, said, "We are happy that the district attorney found it the right thing to do to reach a settlement with Siemens and refrain from filing a criminal suit against Siemens. This is a balanced settlement and appropriate for the circumstances of this affair."
Adv. Sassy Gez and Adi Barkai who represent David Elmakis said, 'We regret that the district attorney did not accept our claims that we spoke about at length in the hearing. We thought and sti;ll think that there is no place for an indictment against Dr. Elmakis and we are convinced that when these matters are examined judicially, it will become clear that this is the case."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 2, 2016
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