CEO of Siemens Healthcare Sector to resign in eye of bribery case

Erich Reinhardt, the CEO of the Healthcare Sector of Siemens, is going to quit as the investigation into bribery revealed some violations in the unit he is in charge of.

Photo: CEO of Siemens Healthcare Sector to resign in eye of bribery case

Siemens is currently investigated for serious bribery, that involve Heinz-Joachim Neubürger, former chief financial officer, Karl-Hermann Baumann, another former CFO and exchairman, and Johannes Feldmayer, a former management board member. The investigation has found questionable payments of roughly 1.3 billion EUR($1.9 billion) from 2002 to 2006 that have triggered a broad range of inquiries in Germany, the United States and many other countries.

In May 2007 a German court convicted two former executives of paying about 6 million EUR in bribes from 1999 to 2002 to help Siemens win natural gas turbine supply contracts with Enel, an Italian energy company. The contracts were valued at about 450 million EUR. Siemens was fined 38 million EUR.

Siemens has tightened its internal controls, and implemented strict compliance and anti-corruption measures throughout the company.

Reinhardt is reported not to be involved in the case. He will step down at the end of this month, and will be replaced by Jim Reid-Anderson, who heads the diagnostics unit.

Reinhardt obtained PhD in Electrical engineering at University of Stuttgart, Germany. He became head of the medical unit in 1994. He led a health-care division that was created under new CEO Peter Loescher in an attempt to streamline the corporate structure. He helped engineer some of Siemens's biggest acquisitions to expand the medical division and narrow the gap with larger competitor General Electric Co. in health-care technology.

Photo: wir-fuer-emas.de