The suicide of Siemens AG’s ex-finance chief in February made headlines all over the world. Heinz-Joachim Neubürger had faced a 15 million-euro judgment from a Munich court for not doing enough to stop a massive bribery scheme at the engineering giant. A reduced penalty, a 2.5 million-euro settlement, was approved by Siemens shareholders days before Neubürger jumped from a Munich railroad bridge.
His death was a tragic reminder of the pressures faced by defendants in financial scandals. But Neubürger’s most enduring legacy is likely to be the 2013 Munich ruling against him, which offered a sobering lesson for German corporations and the law firms that advise them. The ruling blamed individual Siemens managers for failing to implement and monitor an effective compliance system that would root out corruption. And for the first time ever, a German court detailed exactly what such a system should include.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
