In Reply to: Re: ..... business conduct guidelines ......... posted by SB4NW on 04 January 2004 at 13:55:45:
SEOUL, South Korea, Jan 03, 2004 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Prosecutors investigating corruption in the bidding on government contracts by a South Korean affiliate of IBM Corp. indicted 48 government and company officials Sunday, a local news agency reported.
IBM Korea and its local affiliates won $55 million in procurement contracts from government bodies through bribery and prearranged bidding, prosecutors said, according to Yonhap news agency.
Prosecution officials were not immediately available for comment. IBM Korea expressed regret over the incident, saying the "company has never approved or overlooked the creation of slush funds."
On Sunday, prosecutors indicted Jang Kyong-ho, IBM's executive director in charge of business with government organizations, and a South Korean tax official, Han Doo-hyun.
Jang was accused of helping Winsol, a local distributor of IBM servers, win about $35.8 million worth of procurement contracts from the National Tax Service and four other public offices through prearranged bidding between 2001 to 2003.
Jang also was suspected of helping Winsol earn more contracts from the Ministry of Information and Technology by prearranging bidding with companies such as LG Electronics and SK C&C, a subsidiary of South Korea's No. 3 conglomerate, SK. He bribed the companies in return for them giving up the bids, they said.
Jang and 11 others were indicted on bribery charges and for violating fair trade laws. Prosecutors indicted 36 others for similar charges but did not arrest them.
Investigators have searched IBM Korea's three offices in Seoul.