Italian authorities arrest Siemens, Alstom executives

The Italian tax police arrested 13 people, including executives of the Italian units of Germany’s Siemens and France’s Alstom, over alleged bribery in the concession of contracts for Milan's subway.

According to the prosecutors who made the announcement on Tuesday, the ruling followed an investigation into the deals and among those arrested were officials at ATM, the Milan municipal transport company and executives at Italian IT service provider, Engineering Informatica.

Those arrested were accused of bribery, disrupting an auction for contracts to develop the Milan subway, embezzlement, misuse of office and forgery in public acts.

“We’ve just been informed of the facts. An investigation is currently underway and we are cooperating with the authorities,” an Alstom spokesperson told Reuters in an email.

According to Reuters, Engineering Informatica was notified of the investigation on Tuesday. “We are looking into the circumstances of this investigation and do not have any further update at this time,” she added.

The prosecutors said the companies themselves were also under investigation as in Italy companies can be liable for their managers’ actions.

Investigators suspect that the bribes amount to €125,000 paid or promised from October 2018 to July 2019 in relation with eight contract tenders worth €150m.