DaimlerChrysler Suspends Managers Over Oil-For-Food Probe

BERLIN January 14, 2006; The AP reported that DaimlerChrysler AG has suspended nine managers over allegations that the carmaker paid bribes in order to secure contracts with Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program, German media reported Saturday.

The German-American carmaker suspended the managers as a result of the investigations by a U.N. commission and U.S. stock-market regulators, the Spiegel news magazine said.

DaimlerChrysler spokesman Thomas Froehlich declined to comment on the report, which cited no sources, nor on a similar article in the Bild newspaper.

The suspended managers reportedly are suspected of involvement in the paying of bribes in order to secure business delivering trucks to the government of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Der Spiegel said U.S. authorities have been investigating DaimlerChrysler, which has headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, and Auburn Hills, Michigan, since the summer of 2004 on suspicion it paid bribes in more than a dozen countries.

German prosecutors opened their own investigation into DaimlerChrysler in November over the sale of a vehicle to Iraq mentioned in the inquiry into the U.N. program. The U.N. Independent Inquiry Committee last year identified dozens of German companies among more than 2,000 firms and politicians it said colluded with Saddam's government to bilk the humanitarian operation of US$1.8 billion (about euro1.5 billion), in kickbacks and illegal surcharges.