Siemens wins bribery case, saves $56m

Siemens AG, which has been embroiled in a bribery scandal, won a court ruling quashing a 38 million euro ($56 million) fine it received because of bribes paid to Enel SpA managers to win orders.

Germany's highest criminal tribunal, the Federal Court of Justice, yesterday partly lifted verdicts against two former Siemens managers who now must be retried. The judges lifted the conviction for bribery, because bribing companies outside of Germany was only made a crime in 2002 and the payments were made in 2000. They said the managers' use of slush funds to conceal bribes still constituted improper use of funds.

The order against Siemens, Europe's largest engineering company, to pay the 38 million-euro fine had to be thrown out because the bribery convictions had to be lifted, the court said.