Two former German MPs with the SPD party received payments in excess of 5 million euros from the company Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann (KMW) according to an article in Sueddeutsche Zeitung. According to the German newspaper the apparent bribes are connected with suspect deals struck by the Munich-based arms company in Greece.
“KMW secretly paid the consulting firm of two former parliamentarians of the SPD party over 5 million euros between 2000 and 2005,” the article writes, stressing that this, “was revealed in the context of an internal investigation related to two deals to supply armoured vehicles.”
The investigation was launched at the behest of KMW itself following allegations over bribery payments related to the company’s dealings in Greece.
The article adds that over the last decade the company had contracts worth about 2 billion euros to supply the Greek government with Leopard-2 tanks and howitzers.
Those contracts were largely prepared and signed during the same years that, according to the investigation, the 2 SPD politicians, Dagmar Luuk and Heinz-Alfred Steiner received payments worth millions of euros from KMW via the company BFS.
“BFS” is short for “Consultancy for South-east Europe” Sueddeutsche Zeitung explains and adds that Luuk was a member of the German Parliament from 1980 until 1990 and had close connections with Greece, while Mr Steiner was a member of parliament from 1980 until 1994 and also served for a period as the vice-president of the Defense Committee.
For the investigation KMW hired the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) which concluded in its findings that the purpose of the paymentσ was not clear.
The investigation was launched following the confession of a former procurement official of the Greek Defense Ministry at the end of 2013 who stated that he had been bribed over the tank deal by Greek consultants working for the German firm.
Source: thepressproject