Christoforakos & 17 accused in Siemens bribery case for C4I system to face criminal appeals’ court

Former Siemens executive Michalis Christoforakos and another 17 defendants accused of bribing Greek officials to buy the C4I surveillance system have been indicted to stand trial before a Court of Criminals Appeals, in a decision made by the Greek appellate judges’ council on Wednesday.

The eighteen defendants in the case are accused of bribing ‘unknown’ civil servants between 2003 and 2009 in order to purchase and accept delivery of the C4I system, which was originally bought for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at a cost of 260 million euros but was never operational.

The contract for the supply of the security system was given to a consortium led by the U.S. firm SAIC with Siemens and General Dynamics, against the recommendations of a special assessment committee that favoured another bidder in the tender.

The judges’ ruling found that the main defendant in the case, Christoforakos, should stand trial for serious charges of bribery, money laundering and instigating others to provide false certification and breach of faith.

Also facing bribery and other charges in the case are former senior Siemens executives Michael Kutschenreuter and Reinhard-Herbert Siekaczek, as well as Georgios Karamanis, Emmanuil Vardakis, Eleftherios Lolos, Gerassimos Vassilatos, Panagiotis Anastopoulos, Ioannis Petropoulos, Panagiotis Mertis, Dionysis Dendrinos, Grant Lawrence Clark, Russell Michael Maghew.

Others implicated in the case in various capacities include Giorgos Kaldis, Alexandros Letsas, Savvas Giannakakis, Athanasios Rammos and Vassilios Tyrogalas.

The Council also decided to extend the arrest warrants issued for Christoforakos, Kutschenreuter and Siekaczek and has ordered that, if arrested, they should remanded in custody. The judges decided against indicted Christoforakos and Dendrinos for colluding to commit fraud at the expense of the Greek state.