Hakan Samuelsson left MAN after the corruption scandal in 2009
Munich,Germany -AFP/DPA/DW World, by Kyle James & Sam Edmonds -17 Jan 2011: -- German truckmaker MAN is demanding its former CEO, Hakan Samuelsson, pay more than 200 million euros in damages out of his own pocket in connection with a bribery scandal. In addition to the 150-million-euro fine prosecutors demanded, Piece has added the cost of expensive internal investigations to the bill... Samuelsson is not the only former MAN executive who is being asked to pay dearly for past actions, or inaction, in the bribery scandal. Six former board members have received letters in the mail, including Karlheinz Hornung, MAN's former finance chief, and Anton Weinmann, former head of MAN's commercial vehicle arm. Several of the bills are for over 100 million euros... MAN's supervisory board, which is headed by Ferdinand Piëch, a hard-driving Austrian who is also the chairman of Volkswagen, is seen as a ruthless, but successful, leader... In May of that year, prosecutors opened an investigation into the MAN, suspecting its sales force was paying kickbacks to secure truck and bus contracts. A Munich court fined the company 151 million euros in December 2009 for failing to prevent bribery... After the MAN scandal broke, Samuelsson introduced new anti-corruption guidelines, replaced regional sales heads and made other efforts to stop long-ingrained, but questionable, practices... It is also whether liability insurance that MAN executives had taken out could cover the bills. According to the report, their "Directors and Officers" insurance policy covered up to 200 million euros in damages... Some observers wonder if Piëch is setting a new bar for personal liability when it comes to big German companies and corruption scandals... (Photo from nimg.sulekha: The headquarters of German truck manufacturer MAN are seen in Munich)
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