[2008.12.20] Bavarian baksheesh 巴伐利亚人的行贿丑闻

The Siemens scandal
西门子丑闻

Bavarian baksheesh
巴伐利亚人的行贿丑闻

Dec 18th 2008 | BERLIN
From The Economist print edition

The stench of bribery at Siemens signals a wider rot in Europe
欧洲腐败由西门子行贿丑闻可见一斑

WHEN Siemens, Europe’s biggest engineering firm, adopted the slogan “Be inspired” in the mid-1990s, bribery was not what it had in mind. But no one can accuse its managers of lacking inspiration in devising ways to pass generous backhanders to corrupt officials and politicians around the world. On December 15th Siemens pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and corruption and agreed to pay fines of $800m in America and euro 395m ($540m) in Germany, on top of an earlier euro201m.

欧洲最大的工程公司西门子（Siemens）在上世纪90年代中期提出”灵感点亮生活”（Be inspired）口号的时候，”行贿”并不包括在内。但若论及行贿，相信没有人会指责西门子管理层在这方面缺少灵感，他们给予全球的腐败官员、政客可观的回扣，方法手段层出不穷。12月15日西门子承认行贿腐败的指控，并同意向美国支付8亿美元以及向德国支付3.95亿欧元（约合5.4亿美元）的罚金，早前西门子因贿赂已被罚2.01亿欧元。

There is something almost touching about the candour and trust with which Siemens went about a very dirty business. Take the three “cash desks” it set up in its offices, to which employees could bring empty suitcases to be filled with cash. As much as euro1m could be withdrawn at a time to win contracts for Siemens’s telecoms-equipment division, according to America’s Department of Justice (DoJ).

虽然行贿是一种相当肮脏的行为，但西门子的运作实质上却有几分”透明与信任”的色彩。以公司内设立的三个”收银台”为例，公司员工可以在”收银台”将空公文包装满现金。据美国司法部（Department of Justice，DoJ）透露，西门子电信产品部门一次就可领取多达100万欧元作为赢取合同的活动资金。

Surprisingly, considering their crooked purpose, the cash desks seem to have operated on an honour system. Few questions were asked, no documents were required and managers who asked for money were allowed to approve their own requests. Until 1999 Siemens openly claimed tax deductions for bribes, many of which were listed in its accounts as “useful expenditure”. Between 2001 and 2004 some $67m was merrily carted off in suitcases. “There was no complex financial structuring such as you would find among drug smugglers or money launderers,” says Mark Pieth, chairman of the working group on bribery at the OECD. “People felt confident that they were doing nothing wrong.”

“收银台”的蹊跷之处在于虽然它们用于不正当目的，但它们的运作却建立在”诚信制度”（注：即出于信任而不加监督的制度）之上。几乎不做询问，也无需证明文件，要钱的经理们可以自己批准自己的请求。在1999年以前，西门子为”贿赂”公开申请减税 （注：在1999年以前，德国法律规定对本国企业在海外因用于拓展业务而发生的”公关费用”可以得到税收上的减免。），其账目上多项”贿赂”被列为”有益支出”（useful expenditure）。2001至2004年间，约有6700万美元被堂而皇之装入公文包用于行贿。”他们没有贩毒或洗钱等犯罪组织内常见的复杂财务结构，”OECD（经济合作与发展组织）反贿赂工作组（Working Group on Bribery）负责人马克•匹斯（Mark Pieth）称，”人们并没意识到自己的所作所为有何不妥。”

Even when they knew they were doing wrong, they could not break the habit. Illicit payments continued for years after Germany outlawed the bribery of foreign officials in 1999 and after Siemens listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001, which made it subject to America’s tough anti-bribery laws. Instead of counting money in the office, the firm put cash in special accounts, kept off its books, from which nefarious payments could be made. Much of the dirty work was farmed out. As Siemens half-heartedly clamped down on corruption, managers took ever more eccentric steps to avoid getting caught. When authorising payments, many of them signed on removable sticky notes.

即便在意识到了自己的错误以后，他们也不能改变这一习惯。1999年德国宣布国内企业在海外行贿属违法行为，2001年西门子在纽约证券交易所上市，由此受制于美国严格的反贿赂法律，在此之后，这种违法行为仍持续了很多年。他们不复在办公室内清点现钞，公司将现金注入特殊账户，同时并不记入公司账目，利用特殊账户完成行贿。这种违法行为大多交由第三方完成。随着西门子不太情愿地开始压制腐败行为，经理们不断采取异乎寻常的措施以避免东窗事发。在授权行贿的时候，很多管理人员只在易撕粘性便签纸上签署。

The sums are staggering. About $805m was paid to foreign officials to help Siemens win contracts over about six years after the firm’s American listing, according to the DoJ. And the brazenness of the firm’s bribe-paying points to a rotten corporate culture pervasive across Germany at the time. “The great majority of companies operating in the international market were well aware that German law-and the law of most OECD countries-allowed foreign bribery and even subsidised this,” says Peter Eigen, the founder of Transparency International, an anti-corruption group.

行贿的总数目令人骇然。DoJ称，为了赢取合约，西门子在美国上市后约6年的时间内总共向海外官员行贿约8.05亿美元。该公司厚颜行贿的行为也反映了在当时的德国，企业文化普遍腐朽堕落。”国际市场上的绝大多数企业都深谙德国法律–以及大多数经合组织成员国的法律，在这些国家的法律中，海外贿赂是合法的，甚至可以因此得到补助。”反腐败组织”透明国际”（Transparency International）的创始人彼得•艾根（Peter Eigen）如是说。

That, at least, has changed. Mr Pieth thinks about half of the 30 biggest German and French firms are being investigated or prosecuted for bribing foreign officials. And Germany has steadily improved its rank in Transparency’s “Bribe Payers Index”, moving from ninth-least corrupt in 1999 to fifth in 2008. Yet the Siemens affair also shows how far Europe still lags behind America in prosecuting bribery. Few close to the case think it would have progressed nearly as far had Siemens not invited in Debevoise & Plimpton, a New York law firm, in the hope of winning leniency from American prosecutors. The lawyers pored over its books and interviewed staff in the largest private inquiry of its kind (and, at euro204m, probably the costliest too).

起码，这些都开始有所改变。艾根先生认为30家最大的德国、法国公司中有一半以上因为行贿海外官员正在接受调查，或已被起诉。而且在”透明国际”公布的”行贿指数”（Bribe Payers Index）中，德国的级别已经稳步提高，其在”最不可能行贿”的排行榜中从1999年第九位上升至2008年的第五位。然而西门子事件也表明，在贿赂起诉方面，欧洲仍然落后于美国。要不是西门子为了能得到美国检察官的“宽大处理”聘请了纽约德普律师事务所（Debevoise & Plimpton），几乎没有知情人会认为欧洲的行贿起诉已经有了这样的进步。律师们仔细审查公司账目，与公司员工面谈，这次私人调查在同类调查中规模最大（总耗资2.04亿欧元，很有可能也是最昂贵的）。

Ellen Podgor, an expert in white-collar crime at Stetson University in St Petersburg, Florida, reckons that Siemens confessed all not to minimise the fine it had to pay but to avoid being barred from business with the American government. “The amount of money being paid is not the crucial factor,” she says. “The crucial factor is not being doomed.” If only European prosecutors could inspire such dread.

Ellen Podgor是佛罗里达州圣彼得堡市史丹森大学（Stetson University）的白领犯罪研究专家，她猜测西门子承认所有罪行并不是期望减少罚款，而旨在避免禁止同美国政府有生意上的往来。”罚款数额并不是关键因素，”她说，”避免被判‘死刑’才是最关键的。”但愿欧洲检察官也有如此大的震慑力。

译者：Bender.Z    http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=16239