MIAMI (CN) - Siemens sicced "mercenaries" to beat and torture a government worker who blew the whistle on its multimillion-dollar bribes to Argentine officials, in pursuit of a $1 billion government contract, the man claims in court.
Carlos Moran sued Siemens in Federal Court. Siemens' head office in Germany and its Argentine branch are the only defendants.
Moran claims he worked as an investigator for SIGEN (Sindico General de la Nacion) "when he was brutally attacked by the mercenaries hired by Siemens Argentina."
(Síndico is a multipurpose noun which may be translated as attorney general, treasury, or trustee. In his complaint, Moran describes SIGEN as "an independent governing body of the internal control system within the Argentine government, charged with '... ensuring the implementation of principles of financial regularity, legality, economic, efficient and effective delivery and implementation of public resources.'" That language closely tracks SIGEN's description of itself in its Spanish-language Web page.)
"Siemens AG and Siemens Argentina were involved in an over ten-year long corruption scheme centered on securing a $1 billion government contract in connection with Argentina's National Identity Card Project," Moran says in the complaint. "As part of this scheme, defendants made over $100 million in illegal bribes to many high-level government officials, including Moran's former boss, Raphael Bielsa, the head of SIGEN, in exchange for a favorable advisory opinion on Siemens Argentina's contract proposal."
Siemens paid $1.6 billion to settle bribery corruption charges in this case, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The SEC and the Department of Justice then brought parallel charges against seven Siemens executives and former executives, in December 2011.
Moran says he recommended that Argentina reject Siemens' proposal to make the ID cards because he suspected the company was inundated with corruption, but his boss ignored his findings.
"Siemens Argentina was aware of Moran's review of the Siemens Argentina proposal and of his recommendations to Bielsa, specifically, that such proposal be rejected because of its apparent corruption of certain government officials," the complaint states.
"When Moran threatened to disclose the results of his review, including his suspicion of bribery of a number of Argentine government officials and the apparent bribery of Bielsa, he was threatened with retaliation by Bielsa if he persisted in such disclosure. When verbal threats to Moran proved to be inadequate to dissuade him from his disclosure, he was brutally attacked and beaten outside of his home. Moran repeatedly was punched and kicked about the head, rendering him unconscious and causing permanent damage to his vision and hearing. Prior to his losing consciousness, Moran heard his attackers repeatedly calling him a 'whistle blower,' in an obvious attempt to warn him against any further attempt to disclose the subject of his investigation," the complaint states.
Moran claims Siemens' goon squad was made up former Montoneros, left-wing guerillas who were active in the 1960s and '70's, and a man who was and adviser to Argentina's former President Carlos Menem.
"Moran recognized some of his attackers, who were associated with the group, including an individual know to him as Rodolfo Galimberti, who was, at one time or another, in the employ of Siemens Argentina and was a close associate and advisor of Carlos Menem, the former president of Argentina," the complaint states.