FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A German court is due to announce a verdict on Monday in the trial of a former Siemens manager accused of breach of trust in connection with suspected corruption and bribery at the engineering group.
Reinhard Siekaczek, who has been called "the master ofslush funds" by the prosecutor, is likely to receive a fine anda suspended sentence.
Siekaczek, a fomer sales manager at SIEMENS (SIE.XE) telecomsdivision, has cooperated with the authorities and admitted tobuilding a system of slush funds. He told the court he latertried to stop the systematic bribery but top managers failed toact.
The trial of Siekaczek is the result of a years-longinvestigation by Munich prosecutors, one of several bodiesworldwide that are probing activities at Siemens.
The affair has already cost the jobs of Siemens' ex-ChiefExecutive Klaus Kleinfeld and ex-CEO and Chairman Heinrich vonPierer, who are not accused of wrongdoing, and has led to anupheaval of corporate culture and structures.
Expectations that the trial might shed light on possibleinvolvement of top management at the time have not been met.
Von Pierer refused to testify in June, invoking his rightnot to take the stand on the grounds that he could incriminatehimself in regard to investigations into his conduct by Munichprosecutors.
Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser, the highest-rankingsurvivor of a massive bribery scandal, denied all knowledge ofslush funds at the company when he was called to testify lastmonth.
Siemens' own and other investigations into a suspectedorganised bribery system at its former telecoms unit havewidened to include Siemens' transportation and power units,among others.
They may also result in Europe's biggest engineeringgroup's being banned from bidding for certain U.S. contracts.
Suspicious payments identified by Siemens already total 1.3billion euros ($2 billion).
(Reporting by Nicola Leske; Editing by David Cowell)
