There has apparently been a fair amount of coverage of this in Europe, although U.S. news outlets have been somewhat (though not totally) quiet about it. It seems that the enterprise telecom part of Siemens is embroiled in a significant financial scandal. To date, six employees have been arrested on charges of embezzling €200 million to pay kickbacks and bribes. (How is it possible to embezzle $250 million, anyway? Don't these people have any financial controls?) Police have raided 30 Siemens locations [1]--including the CEO's office--and have seized about 36,000 files. Among the contracts being looked at is the one for the security system at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Remember, Siemens is trying to sell this division; this scandal, along with ongoing public concern about the collapse of the Siemens' former cell phone group after its sale to BenQ [2], is not helping.
For more information about the Siemens embezzlement scandal:
- read this article [3] from Heise Online and
- read this article [4] from Telecommunications Industry News
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/police-raid-siemens-offices-over-fraud-allegations/2006-11-15
[2] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/siemens-under-pressure-from-benq-fallout/2006-10-02
[3] http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/81478
[4] http://www.teleclick.ca/2006/11/siemens-fails-to-find-buyer-for-enterprise-networks-division/