Siri Schubert and T. Christian Miller in The New York Times:
Before 1999, bribes were deductible as business expenses under the German tax code, and paying off a foreign official was not a criminal offense.
Is it any wonder then that less than ten years later, Siemens still used bribery as a part of it’s business. A fascinating article – tracing how bribery became the cornerstone of Siemens businesses in the post-World War II period as it faced stigma and a decimated home country and fell technologically behind American companies. Bribery was how it stayed around.