Whistleblower leads Daimler to uncover second scandal this year

DaimlerChrysler said yesterday it had fired or suspended several employees after uncovering evidence of "improper payments" to officials on three continents.

The inquiry was sparked by a whistleblower who claimed that he had been sacked when he complained to his superiors that a secret bank account was being used to bribe officials in developing countries. The alleged payments are still the subject of a criminal investigation in the United States.

The admission will do little to improve the reputation of German business, rocked by a string of lurid corporate scandals last year that embarrassed some of the country's biggest names, including Volkswagen, BMW and Commerzbank.

In its annual report, Daimler said: "We have determined that improper payments were made in a number of jurisdictions, primarily in Africa, Asia and eastern Europe." It said the payments raised concerns under US and German law as well as in the countries in which they were said to have been paid.

The car company is also still under investigation by the American financial watchdog, the securities and exchange commission. Foreign bribes were outlawed in the US in 1977.

This is the second corruption scandal that has hit Daimler this year. In January, the carmaker said it had suspended at least six high-ranking executives following claims that the company had paid kickbacks for contracts under the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

The latest statement from Daimler suggests the alleged payment of bribes was more widespread than initially thought. A spokesman for the company said the chief executive, Dieter Zetsche, was "very much committed to taking action" to clamp down on unethical behaviour.

The whistleblower, David Bazetta, made his allegations in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit which was filed in 2004 and settled in July last year.

The former managing director of the Daimler factory in Nigeria, Rudi Kornmayer, killed himself in a German park on July 22 last year, shortly before the US justice department investigation was made public. Prosecutors in Stuttgart said he left a suicide note but have not revealed its contents.