Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Greek telecom reportedly suing for Siemens slush fund secrets

Greek telephone company OTE reportedly wants a German court to force engineering giant Siemens to reveal whether it paid bribes to OTE employees to secure a $1-billion contract.

Published: 2 August 2008 20:23 CEST

The daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Saturday that OTE had gone to the Munich court in the first legal action taken by a foreign company against Siemens over a slush fund the German firm has admitted operating.

OTE wants the court to order Siemens to reveal details of an internal inquiry into its activities in Greece, with a view to eventually suing for damages.

Greek prosecutors are investigating the 1997 contract, which Siemens is suspected of securing by paying 75 million dollars to OTE executives. Greek politicians are also alleged to have benefitted from the German company’s largesse.

The Siemens scandal erupted in late 2006 and has shaken the group to its core. The sprawling conglomerate has acknowledged that €1.3 billion ($2 billion) were funneled into various funds used to obtain foreign contracts, and that the practice was widespread across its numerous divisions.

German police swoop on gang of foreign dating scammers

The Black Axe gang was involved internationally in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus in Germany on romance scams and money-laundering, Bavarian police said in a statement.

The dating trick was a “modern form of marriage fraud”, police said.

“Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts,” police said.

The money was subsequently transferred to Black Axe in Nigeria “via financial agents”, authorities said.

In the process, the gang used a “commodity-based money laundering” scheme where products, often with a seeming “charitable purpose” were bought and delivered to Nigeria.

Some 450 cases of romance scamming had been reported in the region of Bavaria in 2023 alone, with the damages rising to 5.3 million euros ($5.7 million), police said.

The suspects, who all held Nigerian citizenship and were aged between 29 and 53, were arrested in nationwide raids on Tuesday.

Law enforcement swooped on 19 properties, including both homes and asylum shelters, police said.

The Black Axe gang had “strict hierarchical structures under leadership in Nigeria” operating different territorial units, police said.

The group had a “significant influence” on politics and public administrations, in particular in Nigeria.

Globally, the gang’s main areas of operation were “human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking”.

Black Axe operated under the cover of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, an ostensibly charitable organisation used as “camouflage” for the gang’s structures.

The action against Black Axe was the first of its kind in Germany, police said.

Url copied to clipboard!