In Germany, ex-HP managers are accused of giving bribes in Russia for €7.5 million. The money was intended to win a competition for the supply of computers to the Prosecutor General's Office for €35 million

Three former managers of Hewlett-Packard Co. accused in Germany as part of an investigation into corruption in Russia. According to German law enforcement agencies, ex-employees of the company are involved in giving bribes to officials in order to win a competition for the supply of computers and software equipment worth €35 million ($45 million). In addition, the defendants are charged with abuse of power and complicity in tax evasion, reports Bloomberg .

According to the official representative of the chief prosecutor of Saxony, Wolfgang Klein, a businessman from Germany, whose name has not been disclosed, is involved in the case along with ex-HP employees. Little is known about the ex-managers themselves: a woman is a citizen of Finland and two men are citizens of the USA and Germany. In 2010, The Wall Street Journal, citing court materials, wrote that the suspects were detained but released on bail.

The German division of Hewlett-Packard supplied computers to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and other departments in the period 2000-2007. The facts under investigation date back to 2003. As part of the scandalous competition, the Russian regulatory agency received computers and software equipment from HP - a “secure corporate communication system”, including laptops, servers and workstations.

“About €7.5 million in kickbacks were paid as part of a deal with Russian government officials,” Klein said. “A network of accounts at companies in several countries was used to cover money transfer transactions.” The funds were laundered in Britain, Austria, Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, Belize, New Zealand, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as two American states - Delaware and Wyoming.

The beginning of the investigation into the case against Hewlett-Packard became known back in 2009. At the company's Moscow office, at the request of Germany, searches were carried out, and the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission were closely involved in the matter, which could impose a fine on HP for giving bribes to foreign officials. Klein explained that as part of the investigation, prosecutors from Germany actively exchanged information with their American colleagues. In Germany itself, dozens of searches were carried out in the case, hundreds of emails and other potential evidence were examined. Investigators were primarily interested in the path of money that ex-HP managers transferred through offshore companies to their Russian “partners.”

In Germany, Hewlett-Packard will appear in court as a third party. If the accusations against the company’s ex-managers are proven, then the company faces a revision of its financial results for past years, taking into account new circumstances. The amount from transactions that were made through corrupt counterparties in Russia may be deducted from HP's profits, Klein warned.

Company spokeswoman Anette Nachbar assured that Hewlett-Packard is actively cooperating with the investigation and “expects strict adherence to business principles from employees and partners.”

According to Klein, German prosecutors actually accidentally discovered corruption at HP during a routine fiscal audit of a small company registered in Saxony. Tax officials discovered that some cash transactions were not reflected in the company's accounts. The owner of this company is now accused in the case along with ex-managers of the computer giant.

How HP paid bribes in Russia: version of the German prosecutor's office