Reinhardt Siekaczek: We all knew that we were doing was illegal. I didn’t really look at it from an ethical standpoint. We did it for the company. It was about keeping the business unit alive and not jeopardizing thousands of jobs overnight. We always thought that management would back us up which, unfortunately, didn’t happen. In hindsight it became clear that paying provisions and bribes was customary and practically all business units of Siemens AG except for business units that dealt with lamps and such. And when a manager was transferred from one department to another everybody immediately knew what was going on. From a certain level up within the company, it was common knowledge.
My former boss told me to be careful—the compliance watchdog at Siemens believes this can all be pinned on you personally and that you can be made out to be the scapegoat. And since my signature was on most of the receipts and I have the power of attorney for the Liechtenstein bank account, people assumed that they contain all that on me. My reaction was deeply disappointed on the inside, but I told myself that people will be very surprised that their plan won’t work out and that it won’t be possible to make me out to be the only guilty party because dozens of people in the business unit were involved. And nobody is going to believe that this can be pinned on one person alone.
In hindsight, I asked myself what kind of idiot was I too have shown such great loyalty toward this company. It’s hard to explain. And at the end of the day all I got for it was a kick in the pants, and I am an outcast now. That doesn’t only apply to me but to other colleagues as well. I don’t think the people on top will be held accountable except maybe for fines, and I don’t know how the other trials will end.
It is pretty clear that existing laws have to be obeyed. But I strongly doubt that Siemens’ name has suffered. Since bribery is very common in many countries, people will only say it was bad luck, and that they broke the 11th Commandment. The 11th Commandment is: don’t get caught.