Law Firms
Siemens Reaches $1.3B Bribe Settlement with Help of Debevoise, Davis Polk
Posted Dec 16, 2008, 09:53 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The engineering firm Siemens AG has agreed to pay more than $1.3 billion to settle corruption charges in the United States and Germany.
The company entered a guilty plea in Washington, D.C., on Monday, the Associated Press reports. It will pay more than $800 million to settle U.S. charges of paying bribes to win contracts and falsifying corporate books to hide the payments. It will also pay $533 million in Germany, on top of a $274 million fine imposed last year, the Washington Post reports.
Debevoise & Plimpton conducted an internal investigation into corruption allegations for the company’s supervisory board, the Am Law Daily reports. The Justice Department’s sentencing memo said Debevoise and accounting firm Deloitte & Touche “provided frequent and extensive reports” on their findings to U.S. investigators, “enormously” helping the government.
Davis Polk & Wardwell advised the company in the civil and criminal investigations, the Am Law Daily says. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr conducted a separate internal investigation of allegations that the company violated the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq.
Updated at 10:30 a.m. CT to correct settlement amount in the first paragraph.
Comments not appearing after a few seconds? Try emptying your cache ("Temporary Internet files"), making sure Javascript is activated, and refresh this page.