Russia Takes Second Place in the Siemens Bribery Scandal

It’s not a very good week for German corporate social responsibility, as the Nigerian government has opened up a probe into an alleged 12 billion euros in bribes handed out by the industrial conglomerate Siemens to officials in Nigeria, Libya, and Russia. However the corrupt bureaucrats of the Kremlin must have been disappointed to learn how much more their African counterparts were able to squeeze out of the Germans – apparently officials from Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration were responsible for taking the majority of the bribes: “That made Nigeria a clear gold medallist in this Siemens bribery contest, with Russia a distant second with only 2 million euros shared by 38 people.” According to a new WSJ report, Siemens paid bribes to officials in Nigeria and two other countries between 2001 and 2004 to help snag huge telecom equipment contracts. The Oct. 4 ruling names four former Nigerian telecommunications ministers, as well as other officials in Nigeria, Libya and Russia as recipients of 77 bribes totaling €12 million, or about $17.5 million. After the cut are the names of the Russian officials and amounts paid by the mysterious Siemens employee named “Mennenga.” Anybody out there know who this is?

All this info comes from the Wall Street Journal:On August 27, 2003, Siemens employee “Mennenga” paid a 102,400 euro bribe to Martjanov, theTechnical Director of Public Communication Net Petrozavodsk. (Could this possibly be Grigorij N Martjanov?)On Sept. 27, 2002, Mennenga paid Kaspirovitsch, the General Manager of Public Telecommunication Net Khabarovsk a 39,000 euro bribe.Shortly after June 27, 2003, Mennenga paid Siljakov, the General Manager of Public Telecommunication Net Angarsk-Usoliye a 21,100 euro bribe.And on March 20, 2002, Mennenga paid an unknown official who works as the General Manager of Public Telecommunication Net Cheboksary a 47,000 bribe.These seems to be remarkably little information available about these people – please do let us know any tips or rumors.