Bulgarian Officials Implicated in Global Daimler Bribery Scandal

Bulgaria is one of the 22 countries where the German car maker Daimler bribed government officials to win public contracts.

Gifts valued at several million euros were provided to representatives of the authorities in at least 22 countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, North Korea, and Libya, Romanian newspaper „Romania Libera“ reported.

The German-based carmaker „Daimler“ has been recently fined USD 185 M as part of deal with the prosecution as the company was investigated for bribing government officials around the world.

According to the Romanian paper, the goal that Daimler achieved in Bulgaria and Romania, among other countries, was the conclusion of contracts for the sale of the bus "Mercedes" for the public transport.

Thousands of buses „Mercedes Conecto“ and „Citaro“ were recently bought by the local transport authorities in those countries.

The Romanian news agency Mediafax announced that Daimler paid at least EUR 3.88 M through the Turkish branch of the German company, Mercedes-Benz Türk, based in Istanbul. As a result, Daimler won contracts for EUR 95 M.

Documents indicate that Daimler paid around EUR 6.05 M to third parties; at least EUR 3.88 M were unauthorized payments and gifts, and EUR 3.3 M were registered as documents, called „necessary payments“.

The payments were aimed at helping secure contracts with government customers for the purchase of „Daimler“ vehicles.

The amount of EUR 3.88 M in improper payments and gifts, paid to foreign government officials or to third parties with the understanding that the payments and gifts, would be passed on, in whole or in part, to foreign government officials to assist in securing the sale of „Daimler“ vehicles to government customers.

As part of its deal with the US prosecutors, Daimler admitted making hundreds of improper payments worth tens of millions of dollars to foreign government officials between 1998 and 2008.

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