A Princess, A Poisoning Too An Fossil Oil Fortune The Bizarre Corruption Scandal At Bilfinger

From Der Spiegel, June 17:

Bilfinger, i of Germany's best-known structure firms, pledged to create clean upwards its global line of piece of work organisation practices equally it pivoted to the petroleum sector. But when an investigator began earthworks into i of the company's deals inward the Middle East, she all of a abrupt fell sick - together with things only got stranger from there.

In Jan 2017, Marie-Alexandra von Sachsen-Meiningen flew to the Western Farsi Gulf. As "head of investigations" for the industrial structure fellowship Bilfinger SE, she had deep insight into the firm, together with was driven yesteryear a potentially unsafe curiosity to larn fifty-fifty more. Particularly most the muck left over from dingy deals inward all corners of the world. Her project was to clear upwards cases of suspected corruption, to protect Bilfinger. What she didn't know was that her trip to the Gulf would live her lastly line of piece of work organisation trip on behalf of the company. And potentially the lastly i of her career.

Bilfinger was struggling for survival, together with a human named Tom Blades had been charged alongside leading the fellowship into a to a greater extent than promising hereafter inward the petroleum together with natural gas industry. Blades, who was British, had pregnant experience inward the petroleum manufacture and, after churning through 4 CEOs inward exactly 2 years, including the quondam governor of the German linguistic communication province of Hesse, Roland Koch, he was considered the company's lastly hope.

His vision involved transforming Bilfinger from a structure fellowship of 70,000 employees - a fellowship that built the Olympic Stadium inward Munich along alongside myriad bridges, tunnels together with dams the world over - into a technical services provider for industry. He envisioned the novel Bilfinger equally a fellowship focused on keeping factories running, together with monitoring together with repairing them equally needed. One expanse of operations was the petroleum fields inward the Middle East, a portion where bribery is the dominion rather than the exception.

Blades badly needed a quick win inward the region, together with a huge contract was inward the offing inward Oman.

In Jan of 2017, Marie-Alix von Meiningen was also headed for Oman. The caput of the Bilfinger subsidiary inward the country, a human who had landed i large bargain after the other inward the country, had disappeared without a line together with hadn't been seen for months. His disappearance had raised some uncomfortable questions: Had he been involved inward bribery? Had all of Bilfinger's deals inward Sultanate of Oman been bought?

Fired
But Meiningen never made it to Oman. She landed inward Abu Dhabi, the firstly halt on her itinerary, together with met upwards alongside a colleague who provided tea for the meeting. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 curt fourth dimension later, she began feeling unwell together with headed dorsum to her hotel, where she spent the adjacent iii days suffering from hallucinations together with high fever. She vomited blood, had problem breathing together with fainted repeatedly, equally she would afterwards enjoin friends.

She somehow made it dorsum to Europe but was never able to resume her Sultanate of Oman investigation. On March 9, 2017, she was summarily fired, allegedly because she had hired individual investigators inward Sultanate of Oman together with elsewhere without strictly next fellowship regulations. The fellowship had hired a lawyer specifically to discover something, anything, that could live held against her.

Just vi days after she was unceremoniously chucked out of the company, Blades finally announced the large bargain he had been working on: an understanding alongside Petroleum Development Sultanate of Oman LLC extending Bilfinger's maintenance bargain for an petroleum champaign inward the country's northward yesteryear iii years. The contract was worth 200 meg euros ($230 million). "The society confirms our novel strategy: The Middle East is a growth marketplace alongside potential for us," Blades said inward a fellowship press release. He must also receive got welcomed what the influential German linguistic communication daily Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: "The contract signifies the dawning of a novel era. Many observers had doubted that Blades would live able to modify course."

PART II
It's hard to imagine large-scale corruption existing inward German linguistic communication companies after the Siemens scandal. In 2006, Siemens' systemic bribery was unveiled, together with the Munich-based fellowship almost collapsed equally a result. It seemed at the fourth dimension equally though a long-standing battle betwixt Germany's exporting prowess together with the U.S.'s global police push clit forcefulness had finally produced a winner: the police. Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany delivered its products together with services inward almost every province on earth, including ones where corruption was rampant. America, meanwhile, was actively tracking downward bribery everywhere inward the world on deals related to the the States - often, the only connector was that the deals had been done inward the States dollars.

In the the States alone, Siemens had to pay a fine of $800 million, together with from therefore on, German linguistic communication executives were on alert. Companies expanded their compliance departments to ensure create clean line of piece of work organisation practices together with reduced commissions for their unusual sales personnel. Those commissions had oft been used to pay bribes to Saudi sheikhs or Russian apparatchiks inward telephone commutation for fatty contracts.

Since then, German linguistic communication executives receive got been fond of proverb that things don't run similar they used to. But a await within Bilfinger reveals that things haven't been cleaned upwards nearly equally much equally is claimed. The Mannheim courtroom illustration pitting Bilfinger against fired investigator Marie-Alix von Meiningen involves dozens of investigative reports that a squad of DER SPIEGEL reporters was able to evaluate. They document myriad cases of suspected corruption that receive got never earlier seen the calorie-free of day.

They included the golden deals inward Oman, equally good equally deals struck inward India, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Abu Dhabi, Russia, Poland, Republic of Austria together with Brazil, some of them equally of late equally 2015. The internal investigative reports also shed calorie-free on the three-year term of Roland Koch, who led the fellowship from 2011 to 2014. Once the powerful governor of the German linguistic communication province of Hesse together with an early, internal political party competitor to Chancellor Angela Merkel inward the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Koch left politics inward 2010.

Impossible to Ignore
While Koch had prodigious experience inward the halls of political power, he didn't receive got much of a rail tape inward business. And the internal fellowship reports enter clear that he didn't exactly plow the company's residuum canvass carmine alongside miserable line of piece of work organisation strategy. During his tenure equally CEO, it seems that fellowship executives were unconcerned most the stench of corruption, fifty-fifty inward cases where it was impossible to ignore.

That stench oft spread far beyond the executive floors. The company, after all, has been nether instantly the States oversight ever since it was forced to acknowledge that it had bribed politicians inward Nigeria. The the States Department of Justice installed a monitor inward the fellowship inward 2014 together with the fellowship is required to written report every suspicion of corruption together with to investigate itself. Bilfinger must also file reports on the results of that investigation. If the fellowship continues to utilisation such methods, it could aspect upwards criminal proceedings inward the the States together with live banned from doing line of piece of work organisation inward the country. Given the broader implications of such an outcome, it could spell the terminate of Bilfinger.

But if it doesn't pay bribes? Might that non also live the terminate of Bilfinger?

Even today, or therefore two-thirds of the countries on the global map drawn yesteryear the corruption experts from Transparency International remain vivid red, the coloring of everyday corruption. On a scale of 0 to 100 points, where 0 corresponds to extreme corruption together with 100 indicates consummate cleanliness, only v countries inward Africa receive got scores over 50 piece the total for Asia together with the Pacific is exactly nine. Even the most of import export countries - similar China, India, Brazil together with Russian Federation - are all below that benchmark. The only agency to remain squeaky create clean would live to avoid doing line of piece of work organisation inward such countries, especially for a fellowship similar Bilfinger that is already nether the microscope.

The labor proceedings inward Mannheim clearly highlights the hard province of affairs inward which German linguistic communication manufacture oft finds itself. If companies don't pay bribes, they won't the world equally many deals. If they do, they expose themselves to enormous risks. If they acquire caught, that is. The documents seem to betoken that Bilfinger, despite knowing the dangers, continued to receive got those risks inward society to survive. And therefore panicked when its ain main investigator drilled also deep. The fellowship vehemently denies the allegations.

PART III
On Sept. 30, 2014, Mark Livschitz had an of import coming together on his schedule. At to the lowest degree it was of import to him. It is hard to say if the human alongside whom he was scheduled to take in felt the same way.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 lawyer from Zurich, Livschitz speaks v languages together with had been working for an international law theatre for 10 years. He was the monitor tasked yesteryear the the States Department of Justice alongside keeping an middle on Bilfinger inward 2014. He had total access to the company, to all of its subsidiaries or therefore the world at whatsoever fourth dimension of his choosing. And inward the end, it is upwards to the monitor to create upwards one's heed whether the fellowship has finally started next the rules or whether it but sought to draw the veil earlier the monitor's eyes. And yesteryear 2016, Livschitz was non satisfied. He made certain that the monitoring plan for Bilfinger was extended yesteryear an additional 2 years. That had never happened to a German linguistic communication company, fifty-fifty though both Siemens together with Daimler had hosted monitors from the the States prior to Bilfinger.

On that twenty-four hr catamenia inward slow September 2014, Livschitz sat downward alongside Roland Koch, who had exactly resigned equally CEO of Bilfinger next the minute warning that the fellowship would autumn curt of its lucre forecasts. Livschitz wanted to know what Koch had done during his tenure equally CEO to ensure that Bilfinger's deals were costless from corruption. The coming together had been laid upwards good inward advance, equally had the length of their chat, but all of a abrupt - good earlier the scheduled terminate of the face-to-face - Koch said he unfortunately had to become because he had a doctor's appointment.

Joachim Müller, who was Bilfinger's main fiscal officeholder at the time, had fifty-fifty less time. Livschitz arranged an engagement alongside him iii times, together with all iii times Müller cancelled - each fourth dimension for a goodness reason, Müller insists today. The 3rd time, Livschitz was already on the agency to the coming together when Müller's secretarial assistant called to enjoin the monitor that her boss wasn't feeling good together with "intended" to become home. In his firstly monitoring written report inward Feb 2015, Livschitz wrote: "I refused to grip to a quaternary tentative interview engagement because I interpreted

And non exactly Müller's. Livschitz defendant Koch's quondam executive squad of "lip service playing to the gallery" together with of "window dressing ... to delight the monitor." The company, he wrote, "has a serious occupation alongside its corporate civilisation manifestly tainted yesteryear the legacy of quondam transcend administration who believed themselves to live 'kings inward their castles.'"

Koch had been dogged yesteryear a reputation for arrogance fifty-fifty earlier he became governor of Hesse. Once he won election to the state's transcend political office, that arrogance was joined yesteryear callousness, reflected prominently inward his vicious - some mightiness say racist - stimulate against dual citizenship. He also boldly relied on half-truths inward the CDU party-donation scandal that badly tainted the legacy of ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl together with which paved the agency for the ascent of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The tenacity alongside which he clung to his role fifty-fifty after falling curt of a bulk inward the 2008 election was likewise telling.

A Risky Strategy
The upshot was that, after eleven years of Machiavellian dominion inward Hesse, he seemed perfectly prepared to receive got over a fellowship that wasn't actually serious most coming clean. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 fellowship that at most tried to deed equally if transparency was of import to it, when inward reality, it pursued growth no affair what the cost. Right at the outset of his tenure, Koch announced his intention to growth revenues within v years from eight billion to eleven or, fifty-fifty better, 12 billion.

Before he had to rush off to the doctor, Koch told the monitor how things had ever been done at Bilfinger. The fellowship would purchase upwards other profitable firms together with permit them to choke along operating equally they ever had.

It is hard to imagine a riskier strategy:...

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