Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CARS

Daimler pays out to settle bribery claims

German automaker Daimler pleaded guilty to US charges of bribery and agreed to pay €136 million to settle the affair, the US government said overnight Friday.

Published: 2 April 2010 09:02 CEST
Daimler pays out to settle bribery claims
Photo: DPA

Confirming previously leaked information, the Justice Department said Daimler and three of its subsidiaries had resolved charges related to a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation into the company’s worldwide sales practices.

US District Court Judge Richard Leon approved the settlement at a hearing Thursday in Washington.

“Daimler AG’s Russian subsidiary DaimlerChrysler Automotive Russia SAO (DCAR), now known as Mercedes-Benz Russia SAO, and its German subsidiary, Export and Trade Finance GmbH (ETF), each pleaded guilty to criminal informations charging the companies with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA and one count of violating those provisions,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

As part of the plea agreements, DCAR and ETF agreed to pay criminal fines of €20 million and €21 million respectively, part of the €69 million in criminal fines and penalties that Daimler and its subsidiaries paid in total, it said.

“These are significant and widespread violations,” said prosecutor John Darden, speaking in federal court on behalf of the US government.

Darden noted that the sentence is clearly below federal sentencing guidelines.

“Daimler showed excellent cooperation,” said Darden. “The company has undertaken an effort to clean its own house. That reflects a serious change of mind on part of Daimler. This deserves credit.”

Judge Leon acknowledged that it was “a very complex case” as he accepted the plea agreement.

In a separate, related civil case, Daimler agreed to pay €67 million to settle a case filed by markets regulator the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Daimler had earlier admitted to making hundreds of improper payments worth tens of millions of euros to foreign government officials in at least 22 countries between 1998 and 2008, according to a deferred prosecution agreement filed in a Washington court.

The kickbacks of cash and gifts of luxury armoured cars, golf clubs and vacations helped secure government contracts worth millions of dollars in China, Russia, Thailand, Greece, Iraq and other countries.

Prosecutors recommended that the judge impose the €69 million fine and accept the guilty plea of two Daimler subsidiaries. They noted that Daimler had mended its ways and co-operated fully with the investigation.

Daimler regularly presented its findings to prosecutors, fired 45 employees implicated in the bribery and reformed its practices, prosecutors wrote.

The fines are significantly smaller than the €590 million German industrial giant Siemens paid in 2008 to settle a US investigation into its bribery of officials to secure contracts in Argentina, Bangladesh, Iraq and Venezuela.

The bribery first came to light in 2004 when a former Daimler employee filed a whistleblower complaint saying he’d been fired for voicing concern about secret accounts maintained to pay the bribes.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CARS

From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla’s giant Berlin car factory

In the green forest outside Berlin, a David and Goliath-style battle is playing out between electric carmaker Tesla and environmental campaigners who want to stop its planned "gigafactory".

Published: 18 April 2021 15:11 CEST
From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla's giant Berlin car factory
Tesla's gigafactory outside the doors of Berlin. dpa-Zentralbild | Patrick Pleul

“When I saw on TV that the Tesla factory was going to be built here, I couldn’t believe it,” said Steffen Schorch, driving his trusty German-made car.

The 60-year-old from Erkner village in the Berlin commuter belt has become one of the faces of the fight against the US auto giant’s first European factory, due to open in the Brandenburg region near Berlin in July.

“Tesla needs far too much water, and the region does not have this water,” said the environmental activist, a local representative of the Nabu ecologist campaign group.

Announced in November 2019, Tesla’s gigafactory project was warmly welcomed as an endorsement of the “Made in Germany” quality mark – but was immediately met with opposition from local residents.

Demonstrations, legal action, open letters – residents have done everything in their power to delay the project, supported by powerful
environmental campaign groups Nabu and Gruene Liga.

Tesla was forced to temporarily suspend forest clearing last year after campaigners won an injunction over threats to the habitats of resident lizards and snakes during their winter slumber.

READ MORE: Is Germany’s Volkswagen becoming ‘the new Tesla’ as it ramps up e-vehicle production?

And now they have focused their attention on water consumption – which could reach up to 3.6 million cubic metres a year, or around 30 percent of the region’s available supply, according to the ZDF public broadcaster.

The extra demand could place a huge burden on a region already affected by water shortages and hit by summer droughts for the past three years.

Local residents and environmentalists are also concerned about the impact on the wetlands, an important source of biodiversity in the region.

Tesla Street

“The water situation is bad, and will get worse,” Heiko Baschin, a spokesman for the neighbourhood association IG Freienbrink, told AFP.

Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel sought to play down the issue, saying in March that “capacity has not been exceeded for now”.

But the authorities admit that “the impact of droughts is significant” and have set up a working group to examine the issue in the long term.

The gigafactory is set to sprawl over 300 hectares – equivalent to approximately 560 football fields – southwest of the German capital.

Tesla is aiming to produce 500,000 electric vehicles a year at the plant, which will also be home to “the largest battery factory in the world”,
according to group boss Elon Musk.

In a little over a year and a half, swathes of coniferous forest have already been cleared to make way for vast concrete rectangles on a red earth base, accessed via the already iconic Tesla Strasse (Tesla Street).

German bureaucracy

The new site still has only provisional construction permits, but Tesla has been authorised by local officials to begin work at its own risk.

Final approval depends on an assessment of the project’s environmental impact – including the issue of water.

In theory, if approval is not granted, Tesla will have to dismantle the entire complex at its own expense.

But “pressure is being exerted (on the regulatory authorities), linked to Tesla’s significant investment”, Gruene Liga’s Michael Greschow told AFP.

In early April, Tesla said it was “irritated” by the slow pace of German bureaucracy, calling for exceptions to the rules for projects that help the environment.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier agreed in April that his government “had not done enough” to reduce bureaucracy, lauding the gigafactory as a “very important project”.

Despite Germany’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often held up by bureaucracy criticised as excessive by the business community.

Among the most embarrassing examples are Berlin’s new airport which opened last October after an eight-year delay and Stuttgart’s new train station, which has been under construction since 2010.

Brandenburg’s economy minister, Joerg Steinbach, raised the possibility in February that the Tesla factory could be delayed beyond its July planned opening for the same reason.

SEE ALSO: Tesla advertises over 300 jobs for new Gigafactory near Berlin

SHOW COMMENTS