2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 15:44
The Cologne public prosecutor's office is investigating a suspicion of bribery and breach of trust at Ford. Offices and apartments were searched in Cologne and Leverkusen.
Around 100 investigators raided a suspicion of corruption against Ford employees on Monday. "We also arrested a person," said Cologne public prosecutor Christina Pohlen. A total of around 30 offices and apartments in Cologne and Leverkusen were searched. It is about the suspicion of bribery, infidelity and fraud.
Systematically accepted benefits
Employees in a Ford department are said to have systematically accepted advantages from companies that were in business relationships with the automaker or wanted to take up such. In return, they are said to have accepted invoices for work that was not done to the extent paid for by the group.
A first initial suspicion had already become known in the summer in a procedure of the Saarbrücken public prosecutor's office. The manipulations are said to have occurred during technical adjustments as part of a model change by the car manufacturer. Several Ford locations in Europe may be affected. Overall, Ford is said to have suffered damage in the millions.
Personal consequences initiated
"The public prosecutor's office has also investigated workplaces of individual suspicious people at Ford, the damaged company," said Ford spokesman Bernd Meier in Cologne. Personnel consequences have already been initiated "at all levels". Ford works closely with the investigative authorities. In addition, the company will demand compensation from the accused.
The prosecutor's spokeswoman initially did not want to say against which person an arrest warrant was executed on Monday morning. In addition to the public prosecutor's office, the State Criminal Police Office in North Rhine-Westphalia and the tax investigation department were also involved in the searches. (dpa)
