Two convicted in Siemens scandal probe

German vendor Siemens said Monday it will appeal the decision of the Darmstadt regional court requiring it to pay Eur38m, following the conviction of two former managers in the first of several corruption allegations.

The German court gave Andreas Kley, a former manager at Siemens’s power-generation unit, a two year suspended sentence for bribery, and Horst Vigener, a consultant at the time of the incident, a nine month suspended sentence, in connection with the offence.

The accusations focused on backhand payments of around Eur6m to mangers of two subsidiaries of Italian utility Enel, in order to secure contracts.

The allegations were the first to be heard by a court following the launch of several corruption probes into the company over a slush fund used to secure contracts.

Although Siemens itself did not stand accused in the trial, the Darmstadt court ordered the company to pay Eur38m out of the revenues it brought in from the Enel contract.

“The company maintains that the court’s order to forfeit the profits from two orders placed by Enel with Siemens’ Power Generation Group for the supply of power plant equipment in 2000 and 2001 is illegal,” Siemens said in a statement on Monday.