In our last post, we uncovered efforts by turbine manufacturing giant, Siemens to become a leading producer of WMDs. Not only are they keen to “kill and maim”, it seems these boys know how to play mean and “real” dirty when it comes to money. “Ways and means” kinda guys, if you follow our drift.
It must be nice waking up every morning knowing you are working for a bunch of corporate hoodlums that would make Al Capone blush.
And supporting them must work wonders for the consciences of the parasites and apologists who leech a living off of people like this – crooks, liars and thieves. Let’s see if they can “spin” their way out of this little yarn.
History of turbine/blade manufacturer Siemens is riddled with bribery, corruption, and other scandals: An East County Magazine special investigative report.
By Miriam Raftery – Sierra Robinson, Sholeh Sisson and Jim Pelley
May 16, 2013 – eastcountymagazine.org
In his 2013 State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama praised Siemens for providing jobs in renewable energy. He has also toured a Siemens wind energy manufacturing facility in Iowa in 2010, shortly before Michelle Obama’s spokesperson left the White House to take a job with Siemens.
Such praise came despite Siemens’ corporate track record of corruption. The company has since announced major layoffs.
Siemens’ global trail of corruption scandals
In December 2008, Siemens pled guilty to corruption on a global scale, paying $1.6 billion fines to U.S. and European authorities, the New York Times reported. Siemens admitted violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and paid the highest fines on record to the U.S. Justice Department ($350 million) and to the Securities and Exchange Commission ($450 million).
U.S. investigators said Siemens routinely bribed and offered kickbacks to foreign officials to secure government contracts.
Despite these findings, Siemens was not barred from securing public contracts in the U.S. If Siemens had been banned from public contracts, the turbine blade accident in Ocotillo could have been prevented.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington D.C. head, Joseph Persichini Jr., said bribes and corruption were “standard operating procedures for corporate executives” with Siemens. Siemens was also accused of creating slush funds off the books, using middlemen posing as consultants and delivering suitcases filled with money to bribe foreign officials on several continents.
Another New York Times story in December 2011 detailed a decade-long era of Siemens executives engaged in “shell companies, Swiss bank accounts, double-crossing middlemen and cash being smuggled across borders” among other things.
In China, the Siemens bribery scandal resulted in a death sentence against a government official.
ProPublica prepared an interactive map documenting Siemens’ corruption around the globe.
Siemens’ own SEC filing from November 2008 reveals a few of its troubles at the time, including allegations that also included embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion. For example, the public prosecutor in Greece was investigating alleged bribery of public officials and money laundering connected to a telecom contract for the 2004 Olympic games awarded to Siemens. Norway’s public prosecutor was investigating payments by Siemens for golf trips for Defense Department officials. German prosecutors alleged Siemens paid improper benefits to ex-employees of Enel.
Nigeria was investigating allegedly illegal payments to public officials, and Italy charged Siemens employees with illegal payments to employees of the state-owned gas and power group ENI. A class action suit in Israel alleged anti-trust violations and damages to electric utility consumers due to higher electricity rates paid. Slovakia fined Siemens for other violations. The United Nations also suspended Siemens Medical Solutions for six months on recommendation of the U.N. Vendor Review Committee.
Germany convicted two former Siemens officials for bribery in 2007, ordering the German engineering giant to pay $51.4 million in the first of several trials. Two additional officials were later found guilty but evaded jail time, including paying bribes to secure gas turbine contracts with Enel, to cite just some of the corruption prosecutions. Siemens’ finance chief was also convicted of authorizing kickbacks in 2007.
East County Magazine
Gives us goosebumps at STT to think how lucky we are to have decent corporate souls, like Siemens, here in Australia, helping to build our “fabulous” wind industry. They really have set a benchmark, which all turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers can comfortably reach. Ah, Siemens, a “great bunch of lads”!
STOP THESE THINGS 
Siemens and Acciona are similar.
The General Manager at Acciona worked with Victorian Energy Network Corporation for 5 years up until June 2006. Just prior to this, the recommendation (in regards to condition 17 of the planning panel) that the environmental and noise monitoring compliance programs be commissioned by the planning minister and be independent of the operator, was changed so that it was to be commissioned by the developer, in the Waubra wind farm planning permit.
And the result of this was that the program was changed to the operator to commission the plans with Acciona in control of both plans – resulting in hell on earth for anyone in their way. Fraud, no compliance.
In June 2009, Acciona changed the size of the blades to be a lot larger (longer and fatter) resulting in the wind farm with 50 turbines that would not comply (unless operating in low noise mode).
Noel Dean
The problems with this industries’ business dealings are yet to be fully brought out into the open – bribery, illegal dealings and embezzlement, what next? It is no surprise to many, but unfortunately for us, this has been undertaken with the full co-operation of our Government. When they handed over our money without any checks and balances to ensure it is being spent on projects that will deliver what these companies say they will, and for projects that have been assessed and approved on less than accurate reports as to impacts and production potential.
That these companies continue to behave in the same way time after time, every time they start work on a proposal, makes you wonder how and why they have been allowed to continue for so long – apparently unchecked, un-researched and with impunity.
All I can say if you fly with the crows, you will be seen as a crow.
The land owners that are hosts, & the ones that are going to be hosts, that let the industrial wind turbines on their land, are worse then flying with the crows. These wind hosts will be shot down with the corrupt wind companys, & boy, they will be sour with the world when this happens.
This wind industry is dragging this country down into the SH-ONE-T in a big way, and this has to STOP now before it is too late, let alone the health problems people are having.